William Henry ‘Bill’ Olver was born on November 22, 1860 in a now demolished cottage in Lower Lux Street.

Bill was the youngest of eight siblings, his father was a hairdresser who died at the age of 43, when Bill was two years old. Later Bill and his mother moved to a cottage with only four rooms in Nicholls Court, off Higher Lux Street.

Bill worked with horses in a career spanning over 60 years, his obituary in the Cornish Times tells us that he ‘never went to school and could not read or write, but he knew his osses’. His employers included Earl Mount Edgcumbe, the Coryton family of Pentillie and Mr Borlase Childs of Dean Terrace, working as their Coachman. After this he spent ten years as Ostler at the Stag Hotel in Station Road until, in 1920, his place of work became the Webb’s Hotel Yard. Accommodation was provided by his employer, the East Cornwall Coach Company.

John K Broad, artist and Cornish Times columnist, wrote ‘Quite a frequent boyish thrill was to run up and see the coach for Tavistock swing out from Webb’s Hotel stables. Lovely of a fine morning to watch the loading up, those four horses meanwhile pawing the ground in their impatience to be off. A moment later, the shrill note of that horn telling us they are well away. Ah! They were lovely times! But there’s William Henry, old Ostler Olver, one mustn’t forget him. As much a part of the old borough as the town clock itself. Grooming over, and the coach having gone, he too turns in for breakfast. William Henry’s little quarters are really a curio of the town, the old stable’s parcel room covered floor to ceiling in pictures of every size and colour. Three pence per head for admission would bring many along to see that unique little gallery.’

Bill died in 1940 aged 79 in the Public Assistance Infirmary in Station Road. The Cornish Times headlined his obituary with ‘The Last of the Ostlers’. He was widely regarded as the smartest coachman in South East Cornwall.

By Brian Oldham, Liskeard Museum volunteer and Bard of Gorsedh Kernow