A FOREST TALE...

As someone with a pathological fear of snakes, I have long been intrigued by the life of Brusher Mills, pictured above outside his New Forest `home.`   Born in 1840 at Emery Down, near Lyndhurst - the `capital` of the New Forest - Harry `Brusher` Mills came to prominence in his `40s when he moved into an old charcoal burner`s hut on the outskirts of Brockenhurst and it was there that he took up the unusual work of snake catching for a living.

He worked as a snake catcher for about 18 years, during which time he set about ridding local properties of snakes.   No-one knows how many he caught or whether and how often he was bitten but conservative estimates put the total at around 30,000 grass snakes and 4,000 adders - the country`s only poisonous snake.   He is said to have sent some to London Zoo as food for the birds of prey and the cannibalistic hamadryads and was reportedly paid one shilling by a local landowner for each adder he caught.

He also supplemented his income by being paid to sweep the wicket between innings at Balmer Lawn cricket ground and this may account for his nickname of `Brusher.`

But the story has a poignant ending.   There used to be a New Forest tradition of `Squatters Rights,` under which anyone who occupied a home in the Forest for 30 years then became the owner of the land on which the dwelling stood.  Brusher Mills lived in his hut in the Forest for one day short of 30 years and it is truly pathetic to think that just a few hours before the 30 years were complete, he came home to find his hut had been burned to the ground. It broke his heart and he died soon afterwards at the age of 65. 

But he is remembered -revered almost - by a descriptive headstone on his grave in Brockenhurst churchyard, a detail of which is shown above.  He is further remembered by the former Railway Inn in Brockenhurst being renamed The Snakecatcher in his memory.