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The Hushes Circular Walk: GPS Waypoints, Notes and Photographs |
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Print friendly version of these notes can be found here The Hushes
Circular Walk (Notes and Photographs) These notes are
all you need to find these caches along with the co-ordinates from
http://www.geocaching.com.
NOTE: All of the caches are in good GPS reception areas so the co-ordinates
should be good. I have designed this route so that approximately 90% of the uphill climb is during the first section. I have placed caches #1 and #2 during this initial climb to break it up. The walk to caches #3 is level, then to cache #4 undulating whilst gaining a little more height. Any uphill gradient is only for 20 or 30 meters or so. From cache #4 it is essentially all downhill. 3 Extra caches have been added (#3.2 #3.4 #3.6) as incentive to get to the top! Because the far
end of the route between cache #4 and #5 is a bit more remote and rugged, I
recommend both walking this route in reasonable weather and taking your time
especially between caches #4 and #5 down Stodart's
Hush. When you are at cache #4 you will be above the return route down Stodart's Hush. I can't see even mountain cyclists managing this section, so for cyclists and anyone who doesn't want to walk down Stodart's Hush, then retrace your route back to a waypoint 'Hushes16' and then make your way down Hungry Hush towards cache #5. I'm a desperately unfit and overweight but the initial climb not including the cache hunting took me 20-25 minutes, and the whole route of approximately 5 miles just over 2 hours 30 minutes. You need to add time on for cache hunting and taking in the scenic view, and perhaps a little of the industrial history. |
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| Industrial History To try and make your walk a little more interesting read the following 5 sections as you are walking them. Hushes: You see quoted that water was released from holding dams to 'hush' down the landscape to scour out the rock and ore of interest. To a degree this was done after periods of very heavy rain, but there wasn't enough water even in Yorkshire to do this very often. Mainly hushes were an open cast mining operation, where water was used in the dressing of the ore to concentrate it prior to it being transported to the smelt mill, or to another dressing ground. The hushes that you will be walking through are mainly opencast. There were some dams on the land above 'on the tops'. At the top of Hungry Hush keep an eye open for all the little valleys that were used as part of the Sun and Moralees Dams. Arkengarthdale: The output of the dale as a whole had two peaks, one in the late 1700's and a second a hundred years later. Between 1783 and 1799 it ranged from 262 to 1142 tons of lead (338 to 1371 tons of ore) employing 111 - 139 workers, and between 1868 and 1902 it ranged from 51 to 1967 tons of lead (72 to 2459 tons of ore) employing up to 249 workers in 1880, dropping to 26 in 1902. In 1878 the year they extracted 1967 tons of lead it was worth £29508 or £15 per ton, whereas in 1902 it had dropped to £12 15s a ton. Section 1: From the
Car Park to cache #2 To the north west are the Moulds Dressing Floors, and towards the south east, in the direction that you start walking towards the first turn, is Bouldershaw House. Beside the car parking area are the two stone walls that were obviously something to do with the Old Moulds Dressing Floors and its associated spoil heaps. Many of these spoil heaps have been reworked 2 and 3 times at different periods, when lead extraction techniques had improved sufficiently to make it profitable to rework them. A narrow rail line once connected the Moulds Dressing Floors, running passed Bouldershaw House to Fore Gill Level. Fore Gill runs from the top of the bank above the 'James Herriot' water splash down to the Arkle Beck. Fore Gill Level is just above Moulds Dressing Floor contour. Traces of this rail line are said to be still visible. This level worked the Fore Gill lead vein which were productive in the black beds between 11 and 12 fathoms, around 20 metres down. There is record of only one years output of ore in 1862 of 65 tons. The tubs bringing the ore from Fore Gill Level to Moulds would have been horse drawn. At the first waypoint
you turn off the road and start the main climb up to the top gravel track
walking beside Turf Moor Hush. Not far up, the route takes you into the Turf Moor Hush and the entrance to Turf Moor Low Level, which drove into the hillside to work the Moulds Sun Vein and the Moulds North Vein. Turf Moor wasn't very productive only averaging about 4 tons of ore per year between 1871 and 1889. The dales had other minerals present, but often neither of sufficient quality or quantity to mine, but around Turf Moor Barytes (barium sulphide) was extracted. [Cyclists only: when you have completed cache #1, an alternative route to cache #2 is to cycle down to the road, turn right to the GC1H276 waypoint that should be in your GPS, then turn right up gravel track to cache #2] After climbing up the side of the hush, you start the steady climb to the top of the hush, and then a little further to the gravel track just beyond a couple of grouse butts. At the top there is a good view towards Langthwaite and the Arkle Beck, with Slei Gill and the start of Fremington Edge in the distance. Section 2: From cache
#2 to cache #4 There is a nice easy walk now until the gravel track ends just passed the remains of the Smithy stone hut. Go inside and take in the view from the hut's windows. You will be walking across this landscape in Section 4. Note the linear features coming up the dale. To the right is the main flue from both the Octagonal and CB (or New) Smelt Mills that you have just walked across. There is also another linear stone feature in front of you, that runs in a straight line parallel to the flue. This was a double acting incline (more correctly a drum braked incline) where Chert stones were transported on flat bogies, down from the stone 'drum brake' hut just below you, to the road to the west of the smelt mills. Chert blocks were first dressed, then sent down the dale when the down loaded bogey pulled the empty bogey back up the hill. In theory it nearly did, but a small petrol engine also helped in the process. The petrol engine was housed in a hut about halfway down. The Chert operation quarried the Hungry and Stodart's hushes between 1922 and 1950. The rails for the bogies were taken out of the old lead mines. Chert was also quarried in the same levels across the dale at Fremington Edge. From the Smithy hut, the gravel track gradually turns into a sheep track and then no obvious single track at all. Follow the GPS route until you get to the Moulds Tops. As a reward for you climb I have subsequently added another 3 caches on Moulds Top. I have modified the walking route to take in these caches. So once you are on Moulds Top, from Hushes16 waypoint the route doubles back a little to cache #3.2 The New Smelt Mill Chimney' cache, then to 'The Hushes #3.4 Sun Dam' cache, and finally to 'The Hushes #3.6 Adam Bird's Hush' before leaving the tops as you approach cache #4. [Cyclists only: As the track peters out, you might find it expedient to leave you bike at Hushes16 Waypoint and then walk the short distances to caches #3.2, #3.4, #3.6 and #4. Cache #4 is the best cache on the route so it is well worth it. Then return to your bike and go down Hungry Hush to cache #5. Just below cache #5 as you go down Lilly Jock's Hush you get back onto short grassy tracks again. At cache #4 you can see over into Stodart's Hush., as you will see it is not bike friendly.] When you are at cache #3.2, if you walk down the flue some way so that you can see over the edge into the dale bottom, you really get an idea of the mammoth task building this flue was. Note also how black some of the facing stones have been made by the lead. After leaving #3.2 towards #3.4 note the huge circular spoil heap marking the Sun shaft as you approach the Sun Dam. If you climb to the top it gives you a good view of the Sun Dam. NB Never walk in the central depression of these mounds as it may subside. The Sun dam fed water down Hungry Hush. To the left of the Sun Dam, beyond the spoil heaps, is Great Pinseat (583 metres a.s.l.) and the caches associated with the Reeth High Moor Circular walk. Great Pinseat is also one of the many manorial boundary markers used by the Mineral Lords. There were many court cases in London about these boundaries, in the area from Surrender Bridge right across to the other side of Arkengarthdale and as far as Hurst and Marrick. It wasn't unknown for these boundary cairns to be moved in-between dates when the Mineral Lords rode and agreed (or disagreed) the boundaries with each other. After caches #3.4 walk along the Sun Dam to Adam Bird's Hush. Just before the hush there is a much less obvious dam at it's head. I have tried to find some facts about Adam Bird but have failed completely. The only reference seemed to indicate that he may have been active pre-1800. All the circular mounds on the tops mark where shafts were sunk to exploit various lead veins. They then worked horizontally along a vein until it became expedient to sink another shaft some distance away and then follow the vein from the new position. This seemed to be the 17th and 18th Centaury technique. The ore was lifted out of the shafts using a windlass or a horse powered whim. The map indicates several whims around the shafts above the Sun Dam, but I have never found much evidence on the ground for them. Windlass's were quite dangerous. There is recorded a fatality near Hurst, when a teenager lost his grip and as the handle spun around under the weight of the ore, he was killed instantly when it caught him on his head, dashing his brains out. In the 1800's levels were driven from lower elevations towards these veins and a network of side shafts dug following the veins. They would also dig further down and follow the same veins at several depths. Distances became less important as they installed underground tramways so the ore could be moved in tubs along wooden and later metal rails. There are many miles of shafts underneath Moulds Tops following the various veins. As you approach cache #4 make your way down the mini gorge to it. After #4 then either follow the route down Stodart's Hush, or return to the Hushes16 Waypoint then down to cache #5. If you do the latter, then as you go back have a look at Stodart's Hush from the high ground it is rather spectacular. Section 3: From cache
#4 to cache #5 Section 4: From cache
#5 to cache #7 Retrace your steps back to the route, and then down the rest of Lilly Jock's Hush and to cache #6. [Cyclists only: Between caches #6 and #7 it is fairly well grazed short grass and heather that you should be able to follow the GPS route fairly closely.] At waypoint Hushes40 look at your GPS for waypoint EN1H27K, this is the position of the shed that housed the small petrol engine that was used to power the incline. Next you get to another waypoint 'Old Chimney'(CH1H27K) next to Hushes42, where the old smelt mill chimney once stood, This was replaced be the new chimney that was built on the tops, near the Sun dam. Just passed the old chimney you now see what I believe is Justice Level, although if you look at the vein map it is not quite in the right position relative to the flues. The route now meets
the new flue, and then a little lower down passes where the 2 flues
divide. It is thought that the old chimney was kept functioning so
that when they were cleaning the new upper flue section out,
reclaiming the lead rich flue dust, they could still smelt using the
old chimney. [Cyclists only: Just before cache #7 the hikers go through a gate. Don't do that, but stay beside the fence until you are near to the cache. You can easily straddle the fence to the cache before returning to your cycles. As you will have already done the 'Tank Trap', I suggest you complete the route by making your way to the west, where the Chert was taken to meet the main road. If you want me to modify these notes for cyclists that follow, please let me know.] At the gate hikers should now enter the next field. Section 5: From cache
#7 to the Car Park Just before Tank Trap is Old Moulds Level, as mentioned earlier it was worked from 1658 to 1791, later on the Justice Level higher up the dale, was connected to Old Moulds Level so that it's ore could be extracted at a lower cost. I didn't have any info with me about Tank Trap and found it easily. I hope you enjoyed the walk, and if you have been GeoCaching then please let me know if you liked the caches. |
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And later when I
hunted the Good Place,
Local miners at Nut Hole Incline c1908
Sun Dam Moulds Top
Old Moulds Level
Drum braked incline Old Moulds Chert. Note loading siding to the
left of Brake Hut
Turnplate. to the left is downhill to the right to loading siding
Loading siding. Note kerbstones beside the rail lines. They are
still visible.
Dressing Chert
Octagonal Smelt Mill pulled down in 1941 when it was about to
collapse. |
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