This sharpening wheel came from the head of the Glendon Colliery Seven Foot Slope. It is possible that the cracked stone was simply dumped here; but it is more probable that it was part of the company blacksmith shop situated at the entrance of the mine for the maintenance and repair of  mining tools.  While a whetstone is wetted by passing through a water trough mounted at its base, the word 'whet'  come from the Old English word to sharpen, and indeed, this stone -now oblong from long use- would have been used to dress the edges of tools for their daily shift in the mines.