Three different versions. I’m now not believing the latest especially the reference to a golf club being used. Does not make sense. Thankfully untrue I think.

Iansallos wrote: “Three different versions. I’m now not believing the latest especially the reference to a golf club being used. Does not make sense. Thankfully untrue I think.”
I doubt a golf club was ever used as a CP implement at a school in the UK.  I have however seen the grip end of a golf club used at a sports academy in South Korea, a country known for using anything that comes to hand, from plumbing pipes to pool cues.  The boys hit with the golf club were heavily bruised.

Talking of today’s celebrities, whether in sports or entertainment, as youngsters they were no different to the rest of us.
I grew up in the West Country and only knew of SCP with the usual implements. My senior school used the cane and plimsoll, I experienced both. A few teachers used rulers, etc. for classroom punishments. These hurt but were nothing like a proper school caning or slippering. Back in the 50s and 60s plenty of parents used corporal punishment at home too. So for many youngsters SCP wasn’t exactly a shock to their children.

Just to say the woman teacher who took 3A at junior school used what we all described as a golf club shaft for her cane.

Getting back to the main topic, I’m just reading a rather lengthy book on the Beatles which goes into their early lives in quite some detail. I’ll expand on this when I’ve finished the book, but for the moment I’ll confirm that John, Paul and George all got caned more than once at school. So far, all the canings have been on their hands, although Paul did get the plimsole!

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Andrewmoon wrote: ↑

Jun 08, 2020

A Beatles biography  goes into their early lives in quite some detail. I’ll expand on this when I’ve finished the book, but for the moment I’ll confirm that John, Paul and George all got caned more than once at school. So far, all the canings have been on their hands, although Paul did get the plimsoll!

I’ve seen quite a few references to the Beatles receiving SCP. By all accounts Liverpool schools used a fair amount of CP back then. Hand caning was used on many schools all over the country. It was used that way on both boys and girls. I’ve read of Cilla Black being caned that way at her Liverpool school.

Hello six of the best

six of the best wrote: ↑

Jun 08, 2020

I’ve seen quite a few references to the Beatles receiving SCP. By all accounts Liverpool schools used a fair amount of CP back then. Hand caning was used on many schools all over the country. It was used that way on both boys and girls. I’ve read of Cilla Black being caned that way at her Liverpool school.

There are quite a few references here to members of The Beatles receiving SCP, including at least one earlier in this thread from last August.   It will be interesting to see what Andrewmoon gleans from his current reading matter.

Cilla Black’s canings that you mention have also featured here.  But were they all on the hand?  At the end of this post earlier in this thread there is a link to a claim by a former contributor that one of the canings (4 strokes for refusing to clean an oven after a domestic science lesson) featured in the New Musical Express Summer Annual 1966 and apparently involved bending over.   Anyone perchance have a copy and time to check? 

A_L:
I have to admit to not having read the NME annual for 1966! I do remember the usual NME magazine for that time and its competitor, Melody Maker. As I remember there was little editorial content in either magazine.

Cilla would have been 23 in 1966. She probably left school in 1958 at the age of 15. In the late 1950s SCP was very much the norm. There is little doubt SCP was used on boys far more than on girls. That said there is no doubt that plenty of girls did receive SCP back then and for a good few years after that. I have no real idea as to the type of school Cilla attended. We read of tough Liverpool schools but I’m sure not all were like that.

Most mentions of SCP for girls generally mentions the cane across the hands for senior school girls. In primary schools much CP was was slaps to the backs of legs or across the bottom. To a great extent this punishment was much the same for both boys and girls. The one implement that seemed to be favoured in in both junior and senior schools was the slipper, a large plimsoll. This was used as a classroom punishment in many schools but some schools used it as the ‘official’ implement for the more formal punishments.

Only the naive would suggest that no girls were never slippered in school but I personally never heard of any girls being slippered when I was at school in the 50s/60s. Hand caning for UK girls was the main method of SCP according to most currently available resources. That’s not to say that a minority of girls didn’t bend over to take the school cane in the past. The Lynne Simmons case and reports of the Rodney School confirm this. We must discount the numerous cases of girls receiving unofficial SCP that resulted in legal actions, these must be basically regarded as assault.

At this point Scottish school CP really ought to be mentioned. The age old method of Scottish SCP was the tawse. This was applied to the hands of boys and girls alike. I have read that the tawse was, in the more distant past, applied the rear end of youngsters but this it would seems was many years ago, perhaps pre WW2 and certainly not in the 1950s/60s.

Back to Cilla Black’s experiences of SCP. I’d have doubts if the NME really researched her school canings to any great degree. The idea of Cilla touching her toes for four strokes of the cane certainly makes better reading. It must also be remembered that in 1966 the great majority of UK schools still used corporal punishment. At that time very few people saw it as wrong or inappropriate. Parents back then generally approved or at least accepted that schools would use CP. The ones that disapproved of it were in a minority. Many of these parents would have received SCP themselves in the past.

Let’s not forget that in the 1950s, Cilla’s teenage years, many parents still used spanking at home when their children misbehaved. I certainly had friends back then who were spanked at home, I, myself, remember bending over a few occasions when I really upset my mother. Some girls in their early teens then often panicked about being home late in the evenings. Whether they feared a telling off or a spanking we shall never know!

Thanks for the Beatles info! I wasn’t aware that Paul had been slippered. Interesting. keep us updated as you progress through the book!

Fascint44 wrote: ↑

Jun 11, 2020

Thanks for the Beatles info! I wasn’t aware that Paul had been slippered. Interesting. keep us updated as you progress through the book!

We have to remember that back then the Fab Four were just four Liverpool lads. Like thousands of others they bent over in school for the cane or slipper.