Harry 'Brusher' Mills
1840-1905
New Forest National Park
Famous for:
New Forest man who made his living as a snake catcher
More info:
Harry in focus: Southern Life
Legend has it that Harry once emptied a bag of snakes onto the floor of his favourite pub, the Railway Inn, to get to the bar
Early life
Born in 1840, Harry grew up around Lyndhurst. He came to prominence in his forties when he moved into an old charcoal burner’s hut on the outskirts of Brockenhurst and took up snake catching for a living.
It was an unusual occupation but, armed with a forked stick and a sack, Harry set about ridding local properties of snakes – grass snakes and adders. He worked as a snake catcher for around 18 years.
What happened to the snakes?
Harry is said to have sent some London Zoo as food for the birds of prey. Others he boiled and showed their skeletons to curious tourists. Some reports say he knew how to make sought-after ointments using parts of the snakes.
Why 'Brusher' Mills?
Harry was better known as Brusher Mills – but this had nothing to do with snake catching.
When there were cricket matches at Balmer Lawn, Brockenhurst, he would attend to brush the wickets. The nickname stuck.
How many snakes did he catch?
No-one knows exactly how many snakes Harry caught, or whether and how often he was bitten, but it’s likely he caught around:
- 30,000 grass snakes
- 4,000 adders
Squatters’ rights?
One day Harry returned home to his simple hut in the forest to find it had been vandalised – and he was homeless. Nobody was caught but it’s possible the hut was destroyed to prevent Harry claiming any kind of squatters’ rights or using forest law to claim the land on which he’d lived for so long. He took up residence in an outbuilding of one of his favourite haunts, the Railway Inn in Brockenhurst, where he died not long after.
Locals paid for a marble headstone to mark Harry’s grave at St Nicholas’ Church, Brockenhurst. And the pub where Harry was a regular has been re-named the Snake Catcher.
