Brockenhurst, named in the Domesday Book as Broceste, is in the heart of the New Forest, about 15 miles southwest of Southampton. Surrounded by everything rural, it is still within easy reach of Southampton, Winchester and Boumemouth, with a fast main line train service to London and a branch line to Lymington with connections to the ferry to the Isle of Wight.

It is said that it was an ancestor of Purkiss the grocer who discovered the body of William Rufus, after he had been killed in the Forest in 1100 by an arrow. In about the year 1087 Rufus had his horses shod and his armour, pikes and his arrow tips all made at the smithy which stood on the site of the present ‘Island Shop’. There are several churches including a Roman Catholic church completed in 1939 and St Nicholas’, mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the churchyard is an old yew tree known to be at least 1,000 years old.

Also in the churchyard is the grave of ‘Brusher’ Harry Mills who died in 1905. He was the local snake catcher and his gravestone was subscribed for by the people of the parish. One villager used to recall how her grandmother often met him whilst out walking in the Forest. ‘Brusher’ would be carrying his sack full of snakes, and he would say to her ‘Put your hand in, Mother’ – an offer she hastily declined!

In the summer the village is filled with visitors. Hollands Wood holds about 2,000 campers in caravans and tents, and there are very many delightful walks, ponds and streams in the area.

There are many attractive cottages, some of them thatched. One of the latter, Ash Cottage, once the home of Miss Bowden Smith, was the first village school and pupils paid 1d a week to attend. Shops, garages, hotels, guest houses and rest homes provide work for local people. There is also an engineering works and stables. One public house~ the Rose and Crown, provided the village with its first bus service. Many of the villagers work at the Esso oil refinery at Fawley and other establishments connected with the oil industry.

The village information above is taken from The Hampshire Village Book, written by members of Hampshire Federation of Women’s Institutes and published by Countryside Books.