Some people may still remember Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies; the once immensely popular Victorian story of Tom who escapes from the cruel life as a child chimney sweep. What people may not know is that in 18th and 19th century Britain children helped to make the chimneys as well as clean them. Perhaps because sweeps had to enter upper class homes to do their work, the abuse of such children has been documented. Accounts of child labour in other areas of work, such as mining and the textile industry exist, but little in brick production until the 1833 Factory Act, however evidence of child labour can be found today in old walls. Imprints of small fingers, like fossils, made in the still-wet bricks over two centuries ago can occasionally be found. They record that children, some as young as three, were used to lay out the bricks to dry. As Chris Garcia mentioned in his Ceramics: Art +Perception number 122 issue article, many people ignore the humble brick, but for the observant and reflective they have stories to tell.