HUSHING WELL, a phenomenon on the coast of Sussex; near Pagham, 3 miles WSW of Bognor. It occurs on a shingle bank, within sea mark; consists in a seething and hissing of the water, like the surface of a huge caldron over a space of about 130 feet by 30; and is caused by a bursting and bubbling of air, from some submarine cavern up through the pebbles of the shingle.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))