About | Walkabout Puppets

Hello there! Welcome to Walkabout Puppets. But before we get into all that, let’s do the important stuff—pop the kettle on and have a nice cuppa. Go on, I’ll wait…

Ahhh, much better!

Now, where were we? Right—puppets! Oliver has been making puppets since he was just a wee lad, many moons ago (we won’t say how many, but let’s just say dinosaurs might have still been roaming). From the start, he had one simple but brilliant idea: walking puppets that don’t need batteries, motors, or complicated gizmos—just pure, hands-on puppeteering magic!

These delightful little characters, controlled by a simple lead or a guiding hand, create the perfect illusion of life as they stroll past unsuspecting audiences. No charging cables, no remote controls—just pure puppet wizardry that makes people stop, stare, and wonder, “Wait… did that puppet just walk by me?”

So, whether you’re here for a giggle, a bit of puppet mischief, or to marvel at the magic, you’re in the right place. Now, finish your tea and have a wander—we promise the puppets won’t walk off without you!

My fascination and love of puppetry began just before my seventh birthday. In the summer of 1959, my family spent a week at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Pwllheli, North Wales, where I found myself captivated by the puppet and magic shows held in the childrens theatre every evening before bedtime.

I was particularly fond of his ventriloquist dummy and told my parents this while still on holiday. When we arrived home, the neighbours came running over to the car with a parcel. "this arrived for Oliver while you were away," they said and when I opened it, I found a little cheeky boy dummy, named Archie Andrews, which I later discovered was popular on the radio at that time.

I didn't realise it then, but the gift of that ventriloquist dummy for my seventh birthday, would set a path for the rest of my life.

By the age of eleven my interests had widened to include the magic arts and I began performing puppet and magic shows for our local community.

In my late teens I became resident childrens entertainer for Butlins at their hotels in Brighton and Margate and spending my twenties in the Channel Islands as resident childrens entertainer for Pontins at their camp in Jersey, moving on to Corfu and Tunisia for Thomson Holidays.

Settling down in my thirties in the North East of England, performing for schools, nurseries and private functions, creating and building puppets for my own shows. During this time I was asked to give some lectures on puppetry to various Magic societies around the country, including The Magic Circle in London, Blackpool Magic Circle, World Clown association in Southport and The Northern Magic Circle. This resulted in me setting up my puppet workshop to produce and create puppets for other performers, eventually selling my puppets in twenty six different countries.

Around ten years ago, I decided to try and build a puppet that could walkabout with the performer just holding some reins or a lead. This became a work in progress over many years with many fails, until March of 2024 it finally all fell into place and my very first walkabout puppet, the Chickawatta bird walked on a lead across my workshop floor and took around eight or nine steps.

Just three months later in June 2024, I introduced four walkabout puppets to The UK Vent Convention in Milton Keyes, two birds and two dogs. My daughter Hailey and myself have just returned from an amazing 2025 Blackpool Magic Convention and now busy working on new characters to add to our range of walkabout puppets.

My fascination and love of puppetry began just before my seventh birthday. In the summer of 1959, my family spent a week at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Pwllheli, North Wales, where I found myself captivated by the puppet and magic shows held in the childrens theatre every evening before bedtime.

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I didn't realise it then, but the gift of that ventriloquist dummy for my seventh birthday, would set a path for the rest of my life.

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By the age of eleven my interests had widened to include the magic arts and I began performing puppet and magic shows for our local community.

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In my late teens I became resident childrens entertainer for Butlins at their hotels in Brighton and Margate and spending my twenties in the Channel Islands as resident childrens entertainer for Pontins at their camp in Jersey, moving on to Corfu and Tunisia for Thomson Holidays.

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