The head would apply anything up to 12 strokes of this thing, depending on the seriousness of the offense, and sometimes it was applied ceremoniously in the hall, in the presence of the whole school assembled.
My Uncle described this as a rather awesome spectacle.
My boy cousins, who were then pupils at the same school, would sometimes be told by my Uncle that they didn’t know that they were alive.
He opined that the boys would be better off for a dose of the schools’ old discipline, but that was progress he supposed.
To be honest,I suppose that my cousins did have an easier time there than my Uncle did.