Henry 'Brusher' Mills, New Forest Snakecatcher

When I was sixteen, I walked past the pub in Brockenhurst village every day to go to my sixth form college there. My art teachers even sent us all down to sketch the church of St Nicholas, in the leafy churchyard, for a special project there one afternoon. Imagine my shock then, thirty years later, when I find out that Brockenhurst, and particularly the pub and the church, played a big role in the life and death of one of my ancestors, Henry 'Brusher' Mills. 

Henry was born on 19 March 1840 to Thomas and Ann Mills, who lived in the Lyndhurst area of the New Forest. He had a large family of siblings, including Maria Mills, who married my third-great-granduncle George Blake. George and Henry were therefore brothers in law, and both eccentric and well-known characters of the forest. Through his early years Henry worked as a general labourer, like most of the men in my family from that time, but later, he gained a reputation through his work as a snake catcher. 

Leighton, Gerald R., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

According to Mike Walford, in the 1979 book Pollards, People and Ponies, Henry had a 'mahogany' skin tone, and photographs show that he had a bushy long beard and wore loose clothing. He stated his occupation in 1901 as a 'New Forest Snake Catcher', lifting them up with a long fork he carried and placing them in a tin he carried attached to a piece of string, which he slung over his shoulder. He'd show the snakes to anyone interested, sometimes taking them out in the pub or displaying them to curious tourists. He earned a shilling for each one he captured, usually adders, which were later taken to the zoo for food for the carnivorous snakes there. He always maintained that, despite people being worried about the snakes in the forest, they wouldn't come near you if you didn't bother them. It has also been asserted that he made ointments that were designed to soothe snake bites. 

Brusher, as he was known, gained a reputation for looking after animals from an early age. It was said that even in his youth working as a dairyman, he was able to assist when animals on the farms were sick, with one vet saying he knew as much as he did. A later account reported that he especially loved hedgehogs and disliked anyone that harmed them.

Henry lived a hermit's life in the forest, building himself a hut made out of wood, branches and moss and sleeping on a moss-stuffed mattress. The hut was said to have originally been an old charcoal burner's, near Queen's Bower, on the road between Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst. It is not known why he took to a life outdoors but some have suggested it was after a family argument, or the fact that he just enjoyed living outside, and simply. The nickname 'Brusher' is believed to have come from his earlier job brushing leaves off the local cricket pitch in Lyndhurst, although this is still uncertain. He owned very few belongings, including a pistol, pen-knife, watch and the clothes he wore and maintained that he never took anything from the land. If he found a bird, he would offer it to the locals. He kept a change of clothes in a nearby home in Lyndhurst, which he visited to enjoy a warm bath.

Eventually, he was evicted by the council from his woodland home, his den burned down by authorities. Another account, in The New Forest Beautiful of 1929, says that the home was destroyed because Henry had reached old age, and with 'the kindliest intent' that a life outside would not be appropriate, now in his sixties. The landlord of the Railway Tavern in Brockenhurst took him in and allowed him to live in an outbuilding at the pub. 

On 1 July 1905, he went inside the pub and enjoyed a plate of pickles and bread, along with a glass of beer although some reports say it was a tipple of rum. He said to the barman that he wasn't feeling too well, and disappeared outside while the barman carried out some work away from the bar. When he came back after 20 minutes, Henry was nowhere to be seen, so he went looking for him, worried about his earlier comment. He was found dead, inside his outhouse. Henry was later buried in St Nicholas' Church in the village, a headstone erected displaying his role as snake catcher. The pub where he died was also re-named The Snakecatcher in his honour and still stands today. 

The year after his death, he was mentioned in an article in The Sketch magazine, published on 13 June 1906. It stated that the adders of the New Forest 'must be rejoicing to think that Brusher Mills is no more. The old man had killed thousands of adders during the many years of his sojourn in the forest, and assured me more than once that adders really live in the forest under the protection of fairies, and that these 'wise folk,' as he sometimes called them, had given him the cleft palate from which he suffered all the days of his long life. He held that they had cleft his palate in order that he might not be able to explain to landowners or their gamekeepers that he was not really trespassing on their property, but was there in the interests of mankind.' 

The author remembered a meeting with Brusher, in the summer of 1904, just before he died. 'He was coming across a clearing in the forest by Brockenhurst, with two tin cans in one hand, a long stick in another, and two pairs of surgeon’s scissors tied to a string over his shoulder. He used these for picking up adders. Our chat was a brief one, for he said that snakes were stirring, and he had been delayed by an appeal from a neighbouring village to come and save the life of a cow that an adder had bitten'. 

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From my own family history research, 2026.

Sources: 

F.E. Stevens, The New Forest Beautiful, Methuen and Co, London, 1929.

Mike Walford, Pollards, People and Ponies. Wiltshire, 1979. pages 73-77.