Ostler

Ostler

There were plenty of men employed as horsekeepers in the countryside around St Ives. In the 1800s, farmers relied on horses for transport and heavy labour. Ostlers were a specialised type of horsekeeper. They worked as groom and stableman tending horses at inns and hotels in the town. Ostlers were a vital cog in the wheels of transport. In the mid 1800s, there were 14 ostlers in St Ives. As motorised transport took over, by 1921 there were none.

An ostler at work, George Morland, 1791.

An earlier form of the word is hostler. From this derives the word hostel, a place that cared for your horses while you ate and rested. Owners left their horses in stables provided by the innkeeper while staying overnight. The innkeeper also owned horses for transport or hiring out.

Look around buildings in the Broadway, or the Golden Lion in Market Hill. Notice the high, wide arches? These allowed coaches to access stables at the back of the building. St Ives was a popular destination for day trippers who wanted to buy or sell from the markets on Monday and Friday.

Every Monday, over 12,000 head of livestock flooded into the town. Hundreds of drovers, farmers, agricultural labourers, shepherds, stockmen, butchers and shopkeepers followed. They came from as far away as Ireland and Scotland. St Ives had seventy licensed premises to entertain and accommodate visitors. Some were simple beerhouses, a front room open to customers serving beer brewed in the back of the house. Inns, hotels and some public houses provided accommodation and stables. These employed one or more ostlers.

Caring for horses is hard work. When a horse came in sweaty, the ostler removed tack to wash the horse. A sweat scraper and flysheet removed excess water and kept the bugs away. Horses need plenty of clean water and feed three or more times per day. Stalls were mucked out daily. If guests stayed for more than a single night, horses needed exercise. Then more grooming, brushing and hoove cleaning. When horses were the best way to get from A to B, a good ostler was invaluable. 

Here are the life stories of three St Ives ostlers.

John Franks

John was born in Merryland, St Ives. He wasn't always sure of his birth year. Census records have this recorded as anywhere between 1853 and 1862. His true birth year was 1854. John's home was busy. While his father worked as a glazier, his mother, Jane, took care of four children and five lodgers.

John's father died in 1860, aged 30 years. This caused the family to move into smaller and cheaper accommodation in John Street. There were now of six children aged fourteen years to one year. The eldest daughter contributed to the family income, working as a servant. There was also one lodger.

This was some of the poorest housing in St Ives, of such poor quality the houses no longer existed by 1871. John Green built John Street before 1841. John liked the sound of his own name, calling the next street along Green Street. He also built Filbert's Walk, at one time called Green Walk. John Skeeles described John Green as having the knack of crowding the largest number of small houses on a given area. He kept to his aims with John Street. In 1861, 82 people lived in 22 houses in a street less than 100 yards long.

The family lived at 1 Crown Walk by 1871. Jane and all five children still at home worked, and the lodger remained. John was a 17 year old farm servant.

In 1881, John was the live-in ostler and servant at the Parrot Inn. This was on the corner of The Pavement and White Hart Lane, next to the White Hart. The Inn dated from at least the 1700s. Sarah Burbridge, widow, aged 44 years, of Woodhurst, was the publican.

The Parrot Hotel, formerly Inn, about 1905.

True to the Inn's name, Sarah kept parrots for customers' entertainment. In 1887, Sarah charged a drunken customer of refusing to leave the premises. As the customer finally left, he broke a glass, causing a cut to a parrot valued at £3 (today over £300). A former name of the Macaw Inn in the late 1700s shows a long association with various species of parrot.

John worked at the Parrot Inn until some time before 1901. At that census he lodged at Cemetery Road, still an ostler at an inn. It appears he changed employers to work at the Crown Inn. The 1921 census records John working as an ostler for Mrs Parker at The Crown Inn, well into his late 60s. By then he's living at 6 St George's Terrace with his widowed sister Emma, and two of his brothers.

In coaching days, the Crown Inn was the biggest and most important in St Ives, and gave its name to Crown Street. It was also one of the oldest inns. The coming of the railway to St Ives in the 1840s meant a steady decline for St Ives coaching inns. But in 1877, the Crown Inn still had eleven carriers transporting passengers from its courtyard to local villages and back. Even in 1901, John was kept busy.

John died in 1923, aged 69 years. He never married.

Charles Royston

Born in the High Street, Fenstanton in 1845, Charles was one of William's and Mary's six children. His father was a hostler or agricultural labourer. By the age of 16 years, Charles also worked as an agricultural labourer. In 1871, he lodged at 7 Darwood Place, St Ives. He worked as an ostler.

Things were looking up for Charles by 1881. He married the girl next door from 6 Darwood Place in 1872, Emma Harradine, a needleworker. They had three children, the youngest seven weeks old. Charles was the publican of the Golden Lion Tap, as well as an ostler. Living with the family were Emma's mother and a lodger.

The Tap was a separate establishment in Market Lane, behind the Golden Lion Hotel. Its customers were working men such as grooms and coachmen. The smarter customers, their employers, frequented the hotel. By 1901, it appears the Tap was no longer trading. Charles and family still lived there, but the address was Market Lane, with no mention of the Tap. Charles worked as a coachman and groom for the Golden Lion Hotel.

Charles died in 1910, aged 65 years.

Isaac Hookham

Isaac, born in 1886, was one of six children born to William and Eliza Hookham. Born in Ely, the place of his mother's birth, by 1891 the family home was 25 Filberts Walk, St Ives. A two up, two down that housed the family of eight and flooded in winter. The extended Hookham family occupied five of the thirty-one houses in Filbert's Walk. Next door to Isaac lived his uncle, aunt and two cousins.

Isaac's father was a bargeman. He transported corn and coal to and from Kings Lynn along the River Great Ouse. He was often away from home, as at the time of the 1901 census. By then the family had moved to better built premises. They lived round the corner at 7 Victoria Terrace. Isaac's job was an ostler at one of the St Ives inns.

Seeing a chance of advancement, Isaac changed employers by 1911. He worked for the Co-operative Society. Their premises were at the east end of the Broadway, looking out at the Victoria Jubilee Monument. Isaac still worked as a hostler.

The Co-operative Society, 1950.

Isaac needed better prospects. A baby was on its way. In June 1911, he married May Wallis of St Ives. Six months later, a daughter arrived, Dorothy May. Another daughter followed in 1915, Cicely. The family settled into 23 Victoria Terrace.

Isaac's employment helping deliver food was a reserve occupation for most of WWI. In April 1917, the Co-operative appealed against Isaac serving in WWI. They described him as a horsekeeper and carman (driver of horse and cart). Isaac looked after their four horses and was the most important man on the premises.

The military authority's appeal a month later succeeded. They said the bulk of this man's work was not horsekeeping, but sitting in a cart delivering goods, which work could be done by a young woman. Soon after, Isaac served in the Royal Garrison Artillery. They operated heavy large calibre guns and howitzers positioned some distance behind the front line.

After WWI, Isaac returned to work for the Co-operative Society. In 1939, he still lived at 23 Victoria Terrace. With them were their third daughter, Brenda, born in 1924, and May's disabled mother. Isaac drove the Co-operative's van, delivering bread. 

Isaac died in 1959. He is buried in Hemingford Grey Cemetery.