Shock as Doncaster gardener finds huge snake curled up beneath pots

Mark Harrison took to social media when he discovered the bright orange snake yesterday morning.

He said: “Just found this beauty outside under a pile of garden pots. Can anyone identify it or suggest where I can find out?”

People were quick to inform him that the reptile was a corn snake, commonly found in the wild in the UK.

The snake resembles the venomous copperhead but corn snakes lacks functional venom and are harmless.

The corn snake helps to control populations of wild rodents that damage crops and spread disease, preying on mice and rats that eat harvested corn.

As an adult the corn snake may have a total length of 61–182 cm (2.00–5.97 ft) and in the wild, it usually lives around ten to fifteen years, but in captivity can live to an age of 23 years or more.