On the night of 17 February 1872, another worker at the Red Lion Brewery, who was a member of the same Friendly Society, wanted to leave work early.
George Merrett exchanged work times with him, agreeing to start work at two in the morning and work for the next eight hours.
As arranged, a neighbour knocked on the Merretts' window to wake George up.
It was a very cold morning, and he dressed as warmly as a poor man could.
He wore a coat that had holes in it and, under that, the kind of jacket that was popular in the 1870s, an old grey shirt, trousers tied at the ankle with string, heavy socks and black boots.
The clothes were not clean, but George would be putting coal on a fire for the next eight hours, so he was not very interested in how he appeared.