Alfred Wormold

Alfred Wormold and his brother Edward were landlords and letting agents who either owned, or let on behalf of others, a large number of the houses in Coronation Street and other parts of Weatherfield from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Greedy, not to be trusted, and with a terrible memory for the names of people he was dealing with, Wormold, like his brother, was not popular with the residents of the street but they held the power of controlling the roof over people's heads for many years, willing to turn to eviction for non-payment and only losing their grasp as people got richer from the 1960s onwards and were able to buy their properties outright and as the council conducted slum clearances of the borough, taking the brothers' portfolio away from them with Compulsory Purchase orders.

Mr Wormold had several notable interactions with Coronation Street residents: in January 1961, Christine Hardman was allowed to stay on at 13 Coronation Street following the death of her mother, May the previous month but with a nine shilling increase.

A further increase of ten shillings a week affected all of the residents in March 1963. Most accepted it, though with some grumbling, but Elsie Tanner was made of sterner stuff and refused to pay her rent until the increase was dropped. She asked the other residents to back her up but afraid of eviction they refused. Eventually the bailiffs were called in to empty No.11 and Elsie had no choice but to pay up, but not before she'd made a show of her furniture being put on to the street for the press.

In September of the same year, Wormold sold No.13 to newly-married Jerry Booth for £525 and the following July, after the Booths had left the street because of money problems, re-sold the house to Stan Ogden for £575, after demanding £600 and making a "mistake" in initially asking £700, saying that he was too soft. Len Fairclough felt that the Ogdens had been robbed.

Two months later, Albert Tatlock raised the flags in his back yard, intending to turn it into a small garden. In doing so he exposed an unexploded bomb from the Second World War and he and the other residents were evacuated to the Glad Tidings Mission Hall while it was defused. Not wanting to get in trouble with Wormold for many unauthorised alterations, Albert replaced the flags.

Alfred was in Majorca in early 1965 when Ena Sharples was left No.11 in the will of Mrs Briggs and she dealt with Edward on the matter. The brother was also the one who decided that No.7 should be fully demolished after the entire front of the house collapsed in August of the same year.

Alfred was uncharacteristically generous in June 1967 when he gave Ena £25 to assist in brightening up the street for its entry in a "Best Kept Street" competition but it was Inkerman Street that took away the prize.

Annie summoned Alfred to the street in January 1968 when Dennis Tanner let a group of hippies lodge at No.11. Wormold told Dennis in no uncertain terms to evict his friends or he would be the one who was out, and to pay up his rent arrears.

By November 1973, the Wormold's only properties on the street were Numbers 1 and 5 and these were subjected to a 50p a week rent increase. The following year he appointed Jimmy Graham to enquire into buying some the properties back but no one was interested in selling.

Wormold died in 1981 and the residents were offered the chance to buy their ground rents for £48. Len took the opportunity to buy the vacant space where No.7 used to stand and began to build a new house on the spot.


 * Various references were made to "Mr Wormold" over the years without explicitly stating which of the two brothers were meant. As Alfred Wormold was the first to appear, this article assumes that all references outside of 1965 were to him. It is possible that the character of Edward Wormold was created as Ivor Dean was unavailable to reprise the part of Alfred in that year.