Workhouse

Will had thought of having them to live with him and Anne, but their rooms were very tiny and they already had two young children and a third one was on the way. With shame Will had to see his mother and brother and sister sink to the lowest point ever and enter the workhouse.

No-one went to the Workhouse willingly - it was that or starve. People had to be desperate - husbands were even sent to separate parts of the building from their wives. As soon as children reached working age (about 8) they were sent out as apprentices or trainees and left the workhouse to live with their employers - so it did not cost the parish anything more.

Women's Meals

Men's Sleeping Room

But before these misfortunes hit the Knight family, Will nearly always went to "The Navigation" to relax. It was a warm and friendly place and he became well-known there. It had sawdust on the floor and many spittoons around as spitting was common. The landlord was Mr. Evans and he brewed good ale, which was more than could be said for many other taverns in the town.

There were very few seats as most people stood to drink. Every week Mr. Evans bought the weekly copy of Aris's Gazette. At three-pence it was rather expensive but the price included the halfpenny Government Tax, and it brought customers to read and drink. By the end of the week the thin, four-sheet paper would be tattered and dog-eared, for it would have been passed around the tavern and read many times over.

In it were advertisements for the stage-coach to London, and there were times when Will considered going there to try for better wages, but the cost of the journey was so great that he realised there was no possibility of ever going. Quite often Will read the paper out loud for the benefit of those who couldn't read.

Frequent arguments took place over something in the paper, but there was always a great deal of interest when Will read out details of entertainments that were to take place in Birmingham. They ignored the advertisements for the Theatre Royal on New Street, for theatre-going was only for the rich.

Theatre Royal, New Street

Will and his friends could never afford to go to the theatre, they made their own entertainment in the tavern.

In January 1785 Will was in a large crowd which had gathered in St. Phillip's churchyard for an exciting event was to take place. A man named Harper was going to make an aeronautical experiment and fly in a gas-filled balloon.

St. Phillip's Churchyard

The crowd waited noisily, but despite the fog and rain the balloon began to ascend just after noon. It rose for a few seconds, but then began to fall, so Mr. Harper quickly threw out some weights he was carrying. The crowd breathed a sigh of relief as the balloon shot upwards into the fog.

Will later read about the event in the Gazette and learned that Mr. Harper's voyage had ended abruptly when his balloon had hit some trees near Newcastle-under-Lyme (wherever that was) !

Will also enjoyed seeing other curiosities, and over the years he went to gape at several spectacles. He saw the "Windsor Fairy", a lady who was thirty-two years old but weighed only eighteen pounds. In 1793 Will went to see a model of "La Guillotine or Beheading Machine from Paris". He was horrified but thrilled by this, for, as Aris's Gazette had said :

"In order that the effect of the Machine may be better conveyed to the Spectator, the Execution is performed on a figure as large as life; the head is severed from the body by a tremendous fall of the Axe and the Illusion is complete".

This had such an effect on Will's wife, Anne, that she had nightmares for many months after and would wake up in the middle of the night clutching her neck !

Very occasionally Will would take Anne and his three children (Matthew, Hannah and baby Jane) along to Vauxhall Gardens. Many other young families went here too, for there was sometimes music to listen to and dancing to watch for free.

Vauxhall Gardens

Besides, the gardens were very pleasant to walk in.

Will sometimes got a thrill (although he was always a bit ashamed afterwards) in watching brutal sports such as cock-fighting and bull-baiting.

Cock-fighting involved setting two cockerels to fight to the death and it often lasted several gory hours. In 1792 Will heard of one episode of cock-fighting in Handsworth which turned his stomach over as the cockerels had been doused in turpentine and set on fire, and then, roasting alive, they had been allowed to fight to the death.

Bear Baiting - with dogs

Bull-baiting and even bear-baiting sometimes took place at his father's favourite tavern - "The Salutation" on Snow Hill. This too, gave Will a sort of sick thrill but he still went to watch (along with hundreds of other men, women and children).

It was more cruel than cock-fighting for a great bull would be chained to a post while savage, half-starved dogs went for its throat and ripped the animal apart. The bull or bear did not stand a fair chance with so many dogs attacking it, although it usually managed to kill or maim several before it died an agonising death.