A builder has shared the disturbing reason why he found an old roof tile with children’s handprints on it.
Tomas Nordemanoski, who works with construction company Touchstone in Surrey, was removing shingles from a roof when he disturbingly noticed that the back of each shingle had a child’s handprint on it.
leading to instagramThe builder shared the video, which quickly racked up more than 200,000 views.
Tomas surmised that the handprint could have been made by a child “no more than seven years old.”
He theorized that children actually made the tiles in the Victorian era, before child labor was abolished.
Tomas Nordemanoski, who works with construction company Touchstone in Surrey, found children’s handprints on Victorian tiles and shared the disturbing reason.
It was not until 1933 that Britain adopted legislation restricting the use of children under 14 years of age in employment.
In the clip, Tomas said: “When removing this old Victorian tiled roof, we discovered that all the tiles have handprints of little children from the Victorian era.”
“Kids used to do this.”
Handing him the handprint, he said, “Look, that’s the palm, the tips of the fingers, to see the scale.” That’s just a seven-year-old boy. Seven or eight years.
‘All the mosaics look the same, you can even see the swirls of fingerprints.
“Fun fact: the tiles were made by Victorian children.”
She captioned the post: ‘Children’s handprints on these old Victorian tiles. Since before child labor was abolished. Crazy times.’
However, many were quick to comment with their own theories, with some questioning whether children made the tiles.
One person said: ‘Back then, men’s hands and feet were much smaller. They could well be the handprints of men.
He theorized that children actually made the tiles in the Victorian era, before child labor was abolished.
Tomas surmised that the handprint could have been made by a child “no more than seven years old,” as it showed some tiles with similar markings.
However, many were quick to comment with their own theories, and some questioned whether the children made the tokens.
Another said: ‘It should be noted that earthen clay shrinks as it dries and then again when fired, sometimes up to 20 per cent.
‘So a 16cm finished piece could have been 20cm freshly made. The same goes for those handprints. So maybe nine year olds, instead of six or seven year olds.
Someone else wrote: ‘Adults do them. It shrinks in the oven. I have seen how they were made.
A fourth wrote: “The Victorians were smaller people, especially the less we nourish the working class and the clack shrinks when dried when baked, you’ll probably find it’s a man’s hand.”