Hushing

Hushing is an ancient and historic mining method using a flood or torrent of water to reveal mineral veins.

A flood of water is very effective in moving soil as well as working the ore deposits when combined with other methods such as fire-setting.

The method is well described by Pliny the Elder in Book XXXIII of his Naturalis Historia from the 1st century AD.

Hushing was most effective when used on steep ground such as the brow of a hill or mountain, the force of falling water lessening as the slope becomes smaller.

The earlier history of the method is obscure, although there is an intriguing reference by Strabo writing ca 25 BC in his Geographica, Book IV, Chapter 6, to gold extraction in the Val d'Aosta in the Alps.

The Durias River was of the greatest aid to them in their mining — I mean in washing the gold; and therefore, in making the water branch off to numerous places, they used to empty the common bed completely.

The technique appears to have been neglected through the medieval period, because Georgius Agricola, writing in the 16th century in his De re metallica, does not mention hushing at all, although he does describe many other uses of water power, especially for washing ore and driving watermills.

The remnants of hush gullies are visible at many places in the Pennines and at other locations such as the extensive lead mines at Cwmystwyth in Ceredigion, Wales, and at the Stiperstones in Shropshire.

Although the term "hushing" was not used in south-west England,[3] there is a reference to the technique being used at Tregardock in North Cornwall, where in around 1580 mine adventurers used the method to work a lead-silver deposit, although lives were lost in the attempt.

[4] Phil Newman, writing in 2011, states that there is possible archaeological evidence for use of the technique at two sites on Dartmoor in Devon, in the form of channels running downhill that apparently originate from contour-following leats, though he says research is needed for confirmation.

[3] In south-eastern Lancashire hushing was used to extract limestone from the glacial boulder clay so that it could be used to make lime for agriculture, mortar, plaster and limewash.