Charles Worth

THERE IS A TALE that has gained credence over the years that one of our most famous sons, Charles Worth, fashion designer and founder of haute couture, turned his back on Bourne after he left to seek his fortune in the early years of the 19th century and never came back. But nothing could be further from the truth because research has proved that he not only kept in touch with old friends but returned many times to the place he called home.

Worth was born at Wake House in North Street on 13th October 1825, son of solicitor William Worth and his wife Ann, and was sent for his schooling to the King Charles I Grammar School in the churchyard, now known as the Old Grammar School which closed in 1904. The headmaster at that time was the Rev Walter Scott who was also curate at the Abbey Church and the pupils included many lads from prominent families who were to make their mark in the town.

Unfortunately, family life for the young Charles was far from perfect because his father was a profligate man, incurring many debts through drinking, gambling and speculative investments and was eventually declared bankrupt and deserted his wife and children. Mrs Worth sought help from wealthy relatives at Billingborough and the boy was forced to leave his studies and find employment, becoming apprenticed to a local printer to earn his keep but he disliked the work intensely. A year later, his mother arranged a job for him with a draper in London and although only 12 years old, he was put on a stagecoach to begin a new life in the capital.

His employers were the linen drapery firm of Swan and Edgar with premises in Regent Street where he began to show an interest in the sumptuous French fabrics that were imported for sale. Charles was captivated by the exquisite cut and workmanship of the gowns made by the Parisian workshops and in 1845 he moved to the royal silk mercers Lewis and Allenby but later that year, at the age of 20, he boarded the cross Channel ferry to France where he hoped to make his mark in the millinery trade and so began the career that was to bring him international fame over the next fifty years.

Charles was one of four surviving children and it is inconceivable that he did not keep in touch with his friends and family during this period, particularly his mother with whom he was close, and although the journey back to Bourne to see them would at first have been arduous and expensive by stage coach, the cost and time of travelling was considerably reduced with the coming of the railways.

However, we have no need to rely on conjecture because the archives provide the necessary evidence that he did come home to Bourne on many occasions to renew old acquaintanceships, particularly with John Bellairs Roberts (1822-1902), a chemist and druggist of North Street, with whom he had been at school, and making new ones. Among his later close friends were Henry Bott (1810-1888), mine host at the Angel Hotel for fifty years, and Robert Mason Mills (1819-1904), a chemist with a large shop and house at No 1 West Street with whom he forged such a close relationship that he was later invited to visit Worth and stay at his villa at Suresnes on the outskirts of Paris and so we may assume that during his visits to Bourne, Worth stayed either at the Mills home or the Angel Hotel.

There is also evidence that far from being estranged from his father, William Worth, which has been a popular version of events, he did keep in touch and went to see him before he died at Billingborough in 1878, aged 90.

An account of these visits was reported by a local newspaper soon after Worth’s death from pneumonia on 10th March 1895 at the age of 69. Their correspondent for Bourne at that time was Joseph J Davies (1856-1920), headmaster of the Boys' Council or Board School (now the Abbey C of E Primary School) who described local reaction to his passing. “Monsieur Worth, the uncrowned King of Fashions, was a native of Bourne”, he wrote. “He was educated at the grammar school and a few of his contemporaries are still living. Mr Roberts, one of the most genial of reminiscents, was a school comrade. Some years ago, the great Paris milliner visited Bourne and, in company with the late Mr Bott, Mr Mills, Mr Roberts and other of his old friends, went over the scenes of his boyhood days. Monsieur Worth and his family have also visited this town on one or two occasions.”

His two sons, Gaston-Lucien (1853–1924) and Jean-Philippe (1856–1926), also made a later visit, staying with Mr Stephen Andrews, the solicitor who had by then bought their grandfather's business at Wake House, but on this occasion their father did not come with them and this may account for the calumny that persists today about his estrangement to his home town.

A fascinating story also survives about one of Charles Worth’s visits related by Dr John Galletly (1899-1993) who practiced as a family doctor from his surgery in North Road for more than forty years. He had a reputation for knowing everyone in the town and this incident which had been told to him by an elderly patient was subsequently recounted in a letter to the Lincolnshire Life magazine in June 1979.

The Worth creations became internationally known because he dressed the world's ladies of fashion but he was always on the lookout for new ideas and one day, a lady who prided herself on dressing fashionably, was waiting for a train on the platform of Bourne railway station when she became agitated by the conduct of a man who appeared to be keeping her under close scrutiny. Unable to bear such unwanted attention any longer, she sought out the stationmaster and complained that the stranger was rudely walking round her and staring intently at her dress. The stationmaster smiled and replied: "Madam, you should feel honoured because that man is the great Worth himself."

It is therefore apparent that Worth did not remain a stranger to Bourne as has been thought and not only visited many times but also valued the friendships that he had forged both during his schooldays and as an adult on the many subsequent occasions that he came here. It is therefore fitting that he is remembered in the town through the Worth Gallery which opened at the Heritage Centre in April 2006.