New Milton Advertiser 25th December 2020

Friday 25th December 2020 · 19

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reflections

by Nick Saunders

Life and times of Brusher Mills THE New Forest Heritage Cen- tre in Lyndhurst is well worth visiting at any time of the year. There are all sorts of interesting items and exhibitions on dis- play which tell the visitors the rich history of the New Forest. One of the items in the cobb cottage area is a wooden chair which has some unique carvings all over it. There are feet carved at the bottom of the legs and snakes wind around the back supports. Hands can be seen at the ends of the arm rests. The piece of furniture is known as the ‘Brusher Mills Chair’. the number of visitors there. He released a couple of harmless snakes in the room and the pub quickly cleared, leaving Brush- er to collect his snakes and or- der 2d worth of rum which he was able to drink in peace. Final days

Three weeks before Brusher passed away he had suffered from a bout of bronchitis. He appeared to have recovered from this and on 1st July 1905 at about 6pm he was, as usual, sit- ting in the Railway Inn drinking rum and eating a meal of bread and pickles. The landlord, Mr William Perkins, left the bar to attend to other duties. On his return Brusher was no longer there. When Mills had not returned after 20 minutes Perkins searched for him and found that he had passed away in the outhouse at the back of the Inn. At the inquest, Dr Hibberd stated that he had been called to examine the deceased and diagnosed that he had suffered a heart attack. The doctor said that he had previously examined Brusher when he had been taken ill at the Rose and Crown and had diagnosed a heart condition on that occasion. He told the coro- ners’ court that Mills had been in failing health for the last 12 months. Brusher was buried in St Nicholas Church Brockenhurst. Through public subscription a sum of money was raised to purchase a magnificent mar- ble headstone with a carving of Brusher outside his turf hut holding some snakes. The Brusher Mills chair In 1972 TV presenter and writer Jack Hargreaves pur- chased an ornately carved wooden chair from a dealer in Sussex. The provenance given with the chair was that it was made in the New Forest in 1912 by Eddie Mills of Burley, who was Brusher’s nephew. The chair had been carved in tribute to Brusher. It used a number of different woods found in the New Forest. Initially Mr Hargreaves thought that it might have been used by Brusher in his hut. It was not possible to prove this and the accounts from those who visited the snake catcher made no mention of an ornately carved chair in his home. In 1980 Jack Hargreaves was the president of the New Forest Show. The following year he and his wife left the area to move to Dorset. Jack felt it would be wrong to take the chair out of

Who was Brusher Mills and what is his connection to the chair? Early history Henry Mills was born in Lyndhurst in 1840. His father, Thomas, stated in the 1841 cen- sus that he was an agricultur- al labourer. The family lived in Emery Down in a small cottage that was home to Henry’s par- ents and seven siblings. At about that time an agri- cultural labourer’s weekly wage was nine shillings so it would have been a real struggle for the Mills family growing up. Every- one would have had to make a contribution to the family’s income. Later census returns show Henry’s mother and sis- ters working as laundresses and dressmakers while Henry is re- corded as a labourer. Henry’s early life is difficult to research. In the midsummer quarter sessions records held at Winchester, a Henry Mills was acquitted of uttering coun- terfeit coins. In the 1871 cen- sus Henry is recorded as being named Harry Mills and living with his family in Lyndhurst. The 1873 lunatic patients’ ad- missions register shows a Hen- ry Mills of Hampshire admitted as a pauper patient on 26th July and discharged on 27th October. On 18th October 1886 the court records for the quar- ter sessions held at Winchester show a Henry Mills convicted of larceny and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. However, Henry Mills is a rel- atively common name and it is impossible to positively link the Henry Mills in the court reports and lunacy record as being the Henry Mills we now know as ‘Brusher’ Mills, the snake catcher of the New Forest. In Henry’s defence, one or two in- terviewers of Mills record that he disapproved of theft and did not even resort to poaching to make ends meet. As his fame spread in the late Victorian period, a number of journalists interviewed Henry and it is through their accounts that we know more about him. A.W. Drayson, writing in the Hampshire Advertiser in 1887, stated that Mills had been a snake catcher for six years. Mrs Delves Broughton in 1899 wrote that he had been plying his trade as a snake catcher for 18 years so it is probable that Henry Mills began his career in about 1881 or just after. Henry appears on the 1881 census as a lodger in a house in Clay Hill, Lyndhurst. Several newspaper sources of the time attribute the nick- name ‘Brusher’ to have orig- inated from his industrious sweeping of the cricket pitch at Bolton’s Bench, which needed to be cleaned prior to matches after the ponies had left their mark.

Brusher Mills c1890 outside his hut

Brusher Mills was about 5ft 3in tall and described as ‘Robinson Crusoe’ in appearance

Description The descriptions we have of Brusher and the photographs of him are mainly taken in the last decade or so of his life. He is described as being about 5ft 3in tall and rather “Robinson Crusoe in appearance”. He wore a velveteen coat that had once been blue and was quite tattered. The writer A.W. Drayson stated that he recog- nised this coat as “having once belonged to the Duke of Beau- fort’s Hunt’. Under his coat he wore several waistcoats. He was usually seen with cor- duroy trousers and thick leath- er gaiters over stout boots. A battered felt hat and long, grey beard completed the ensemble. His complexion was a mahog- any-brown colour owing to his outdoor life. His speech was somewhat difficult to compre- hend as Brusher suffered from a cleft palate. All who met Brusher com- mented on the tins and con- tainers he kept in his jacket pockets and that he was strung about with a variety of sacks and other implements. Many of the photographs of Brusher show him with a pair of tongs thrust through the button hole of jacket. This implement has been described as an adapted pair of scissors or medical for- ceps that Brusher used for hold-

ing the poisonous adders. He also carried with him a forked stick that he used both for walking and for catching the snakes. Various writers have de- scribed the methods by which Brusher would catch snakes. If the creature was a harmless grass snake he would grab it just behind the head and quick- ly place it in one of the sacks he had with him. If it was an adder, he would use the forked stick to pin the snake to the ground. Using the tongs he would pick the snake up just behind the head. When Brusher was ready, he would remove the perforated lid of a tin he carried with him and carefully place the adder inside. Brusher was able to sell the snakes for a shilling each to Lord Londesborough who was renting Northerwood House at Emery Down in Lyndhurst. Lord Londesborough sold them on to London Zoo or used them as food for his birds of prey. Brusher did sell some snakes direct to zoos and also sold snake skins to collectors. He created a liquid from boiled ad- der fat which he swore was the antidote to adder bites. This he also managed to sell. Estimates vary as to how many snakes Brusher caught in his life- time but some figures suggest 30,000-35,000 of which about 5,000 were adders. Mills admitted to a journal- ist that he had been bitten just once by an adder that he said he had handled carelessly. As he was moving his hand up from its tail the snake curled round and sank its fangs into his finger. Brusher used a knife to make a deep incision by the wound and let the blood flow freely. He then rubbed into the cut some of the boiled adder fat he carried in a bottle. Brusher survived the incident with no ill effects. Home When Brusher started work- ing as a snake catcher he moved into a turf charcoal burner’s hut in the Forest and lived a frugal but happy lifestyle. The writer Mrs Delves Broughton visited him in 1899 and wrote that the hut was made of tree branches covered with sods and brack- en. His furniture consisted of “a bed of dried ferns, an old tobacco tin made to hang over the fire by means of a piece of wire inserted in the sides, and a spoon of home manufacture”. She went on to say: “He is con- tented with his lot, which is more than can be said of others richer in this world’s goods.” Brusher lived in the hut for 19 years and four months. Sourc- es vary as to what happened to the hut. Some say that locals

destroyed it out of spite; oth- ers that the authorities demol- ished it so that Brusher could not claim squatters’ rights in the Forest. At the coroner’s in- quest into Brusher’s death in 1905 it was stated that the local authorities burnt the hut down. It has been suggested that this was done in an attempt to get Brusher to move into a cottage out of a concern for his health. This attempt to bring Brusher indoors failed as he obtained permission to live in a wooden hut on the New Park Estate. He remained there for the rest of his life. His last home was described by a journalist as being “an unpretentious and primitive structure just tall enough for a full-grown man to stand up- right in”. There was a pan that Brusher used for washing, a pot for cooking, a wicker chair and one or two stools. Newspapers and old logs were stored inside. Character There are many stories re- corded about Brusher Mills. Several of them were published in the Bournemouth Daily Echo of 8th July 1905 when it report- ed on Brusher’s death. One sto- ry recounted was that he was in the Forest with a party of visi- tors who wanted to be shown some adders. Brusher spotted that one of the gentlemen had a hipflask in his pocket. He became suddenly unwell and collapsed, so the owner of the hipflask offered Brusher a sip to help revive him. After taking a good swig of the offered spirits, Brusher’s recovery was said to be remarkable and swift. The party soon proceeded on their way. On another occasion in his local Brockenhurst pub, the Railway Inn, now called the Snakecatcher, Brusher was un- able to get to the bar owing to

Jack Hargreaves and his wife handing over the Brusher Mills chair to Sir Dudley Forward

the Forest and presented it to the New Forest Agricultural Show Society. The show soci- ety has placed the chair in the care of the New Forest Heritage Centre on long-term loan for everyone to see and enjoy. Brusher Mills was one of the

great characters of the New Forest and his legend lives on. Nick Saunders BA (Hons) is a local historian and chairman of the Milton Heritage Society. He can be contacted via nick@miltonheritagesociety. co.uk or 01425 618549

44-46 High Street, Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 9YS 01590 677818 www.elliottsoßymington.com

Brusher Mills chair at the New Forest Visitors Centre, Lyndhurst

A Brusher Mills postcard dated 1904