Family History

Sex : Male

Date of Birth : 1878

Place of Birth : Hitchin

Date of Death : BET JUL 1957 AND SEP 1957

Place of Death : Hitchin

Number of Children : 14

Charles Worbey was a member of the Hitchin Footbal Club committee from ??? until towards the end of the 1920s. From newpaper reports after he left the committee, around the time the club changed from Hitchin Football Club to Hitchin Town Football Club, Charles appeared to have held some hostility torwads the club. In 1902 Queen Street was compared to the worst slums of London. In 1909, the houses were described as “…old properties in decaying condition with rats and mud”. Another resident who was a boy in 1919, said of Chapmans Yard, “you could see the shabby houses and entrances to whatseemed to a child frightening yards, two of which were so narrow that houses facing each other were little more than a handshake apart”. In 1921 Hitchin Urban District Council declared the housing was unsanitary and that they should be demolished so clearance began in 1926. A total of 174 houses were pulled down in the area now known as St Mary’s Square, a fact commemorated on one of the flights of steps leading up from the river. The 637 inhabitants were re-housed on the Sunnyside Estate with some not leaving their yards until the final moments. There was more demolition in the 1950s and when Barnard’s Yard came down, a Tudor half crown was found under the floor. Local Councillor, Charles Worbey built himself a new house with the Elizabethan materials and some of it went to America for use in a replica of Hampton Court.

Harriet Gray ( BET OCT 1901 AND DEC 1901 - )

Children : Peggy L F Worbey - Albert E Worbey - George C Worbey - Richard Thomas Worbey - Jack Worbey - Lilla Joan Worbey - Cecil Robert Worbey - George Charles Worbey - Albert Worbey - Charles George Worbey - Gladys Worbey - Henry Worbey - Florence Worbey - Michael E Worbey

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