Even a major Victorian train disaster and mention of what is probably the world’s longest ‘soap’ albeit a radio one has not spurred any recent posts on the main subject of this forum.
Many modern UK youngsters would scarcely believe that a significant number of the last generation received school corporal punishment (SCP). True, apart from a small number of private UK schools, SCP ceased completely in UK schools in 1987. This means that few under the age of 50 will have ever received SCP. In fact most of the structure of UK schools has changed, largely for the better of course.
I am sure that many here over the age of 50 will remember SCP even if they never experienced it themselves. I am fully aware that it was, in many schools, no longer used or being phased out well before the UK state school ban. However there were some schools that still used it right until it became banned. Parents attitudes towards had changed. In the past it was seen and right and proper by many parents but many disapproved of it.
Nowadays it is very much a taboo subject to most people not to be mentioned even causally. In recent years we have seen some other things from even the more distant past becoming almost a forbidden subject only to be mentioned when firmly condemning them. Street names have changed in some areas.

Further to JamieMurphy‘s contribution on Richard Madeley and the Coopers’ Company school  here, never having heard of Richard Madeley I had recourse to the  web to inform myself.  A media presenter apparently, and the Daily Telegraph’s agony uncle at some stage.  I’ve no idea if he still is.

Richard Madeley was born in 1956, which will I think make him sufficiently younger than Sir John 2 for their periods at the school not to have approached an overlap.  The Wikipedia article on Madeley, which if he has any sense he will have edited, doesn’t mention his time at Coopers’ Company, but merely says that he attended Shenfield High School in Brentwood.  However his attendance for a period at Coopers’ Company is noted in articles elsewhere, which indicate that he moved to Shenfield High School when he was about 14.  He has written in various places that he was severely beaten by his father until the age of 10, and this features in Wikipedia.   A family tradition apparently as his father was himself beaten at home when he was a boy.

It is interesting that JamieMurphy comments in the contribution I link above:

lt might make sense to have one master administering caning to ensure consistency (number of strokes, hardness) but one would have thought the head or deputy would have that job.

This is perhaps explained by a contribution from Sir John 2 that I linked in #150, where he says of the Coopers’ Company school that:

SCP was usually dished out by the teachers in class with both the Head and Deputy Head only being involved where the reputation of the school was impaired due to some outside school behavior or serious matters such as stealing when expulsion was usually the norm.

As for Richard Madeley’s account of the Music Master fetching his paramour the English Teacher in as a witness to Madeley’s caning, it might I suppose happen legitimately if witnesses were a school requirement and nobody else was available or if she was nearest to hand.  But if Madeley’s inference regarding the incident is correct it certainly wasn’t according to Hoyle!   I seem to recall though that we have at least one similar report elsewhere in the Forum.  Alas I can’t at present recall any details.  If  I do i’ll link it.

My apologies for my recent lack of support to this most esteemed forum

However ,having just returned from an East Coast shake down cruise to celebrate my return to reasonable good health I feel obligated, almost Lazarus wise, to take issue regarding what I perceive to be grossly inaccurate comments regarding my Alma Mater allegedly made by Richard Madeley in the Daily Telegraph as reported by JamieMurphy in this thread at #147.

Contrary to what was claimed,the standard of teaching at Coopers Company School was exceptionally high as evidenced by the schools high academic achievements over the years. As I have previously stated, one of the things that was drummed into us as pupils was that we were a privileged few and obliged study hard and achieve to justify our right to be there . Today , in its present form as co educational Coopers Coburn based in Upminster Essex ,it continues to rate high and I understand the school is still over subscribed each year with around 10/14 applicants for every available place.

I am not sure on what information Mr Madely is basing his comments but these were no doubt influenced by of his own experiences there which caused him to color his perceptions. I strongly suspect his time there was not as enjoyable as my own.

I cannot dispute that the school building was somewhat elderly and Victorian but had a certain old world charm and the Physics, Chemistry and biology labs were excellent very well equipped . I find it hard to believe there was any untoward behavior of any member of staff towards pupils as the systems in place would have brought complaints to light very quickly. PE was only in the curriculum up until the 3^rd year and whilst I recollect it being the norm not to wear underpants under your P E shorts there was certainly no mandatory rule and certainly no inspection, Games occupied one complete afternoon every week right up until the 5^th year and far from being told to not wear underpants for Rugby we were told to bring a spare pair of Jockey A style underwear for support. Some boys in the 4^th and 5^th years actually wore Jock straps. ..

The claim/inference that the music master was solely responsible for caning is complete nonsense. As I have stated in various previous posts the majority of teachers caned and slippered .Music was actually only on the curriculum for years one and two and was not a full time post . During my time the music teacher also taught history to years one and 2 . In fact we completed the very basic music syllabus around half way through year 2 and it often became a lesson where we were allowed to start our homework (there was quite a lot of this) and the teacher marked history homework..

There could well have been a sexual liaisons between teaching staff although I don’t think the very popular Mam’selle was in anyway compromised in my time. . From my knowledge from friendships in the 1970s with various teachers in their 20s and 30s these sort of liaisons were was far from uncommon.in many schools although the parties involved were obviously expected to be very discreet. .

Hello Sir John 2,

A stirring return to the fray!  I am pleased to hear that you have regained your health and resumed your nautical exploits, though sadly this Forum is the poorer for your absence.

I was a little surprised at the tone of the article quoted by JamieMurphy in his contribution #149 earlier in the thread.  However the Daily Telegraph seems not to be what it once was.  In the days when I used to read it I don’t recall it having an ‘agony’ anything, aunt or uncle!  It didn’t attract the sort of readership likely to require such a facility.  But alas the UK press, like the rest of our media, is not what it once was.

As for Richard Madeley, as I noted in my earlier contribution I’d never heard of him and had to look him up.  He appears to have done and said some very strange things over the years and, admittedly at second hand from articles rather than from acquaintance I formed the opinion that he says whatever comes into his head to gain attention.

Firstly I apologize that I’ve been quiet on here.  Life gets in the way sometimes.  Furthermore, I’d become a little overwhelmed whilst analysing the data from Greater Manchester, a lot of the groups I’ve researched are still very active with new accounts being added every day.  Consequently, I will have to draw the line somewhere and I’m going to break Greater Manchester into smaller chunks, and I should be able to post the first batch within the not-too-distant future.

Secondly, and back on topic regarding celebrities, I have found a couple accounts of pointless minor celebrities that claim to have received SCP as well as giving SCP.  I’ll aim to get this information uploaded by the weekend.

If my memory is accurate Richard Madeley in his autobiography said he was caned at home by his father so severely that he was kept off school the next day. His mother intervened and his father said it would never happen again.

lansallos wrote: ↑

May 17, 2023

If my memory is accurate Richard Madeley in his autobiography said he was caned at home by his father so severely that he was kept off school the next day. His mother intervened and his father said it would never happen again.

Caning by parents in past years wasn’t totally unheard of but it was not heard of often. I’m about 10 years older than Richard and I only remember the occasional mention of a parent using a cane at home. The cane was very much a school punishment. It was quick to apply effectively. A few firm strokes could be applied quickly, under a minute, leaving a sore bottom for the rest of the day.  It could be done in the classroom or head’s office. Six of the best was generally seen as the maximum school punishment. I remember having sore backside all weekend after a visit to the deputy head after Friday afternoon school. The marks remained much longer.
Parental spankings back then varied enormously, from nothing to much like in school. I was spanked and occasionally slippered at home until I was about 12 but I knew of some boys who were spanked at home well into their teens. Whilst schools had some rules about CP they varied area to area even school to school.
I believe home spankings were not exclusively reserved for boys though. i remember my aunt warning her two daughters what would happen if they persisted in misbehaving. I personally knew almost nothing of girls receiving CP in senior school . I went to a boys grammar school with a girls one adjoining but there never was any firm mention of girls receiving CP.
Not having read Richard Madeley’s autobiography I know nothing of background.

SOTB – I vaguely recall it was a garden cane he used not a proper school cane. Might be wrong but think there was mention of a garden shed. His mother was furious and made his father apologize and made certain it would never happen again. He referred to it before but played it down then painted the true picture in later in his autobiography.

lansallos wrote: ↑

May 18, 2023

SOTB – I vaguely recall it was a garden cane he used not a proper school cane. Might be wrong but think there was mention of a garden shed. His mother was furious and made his father apologize and made certain it would never happen again. He referred to it before but played it down then painted the true picture in later in his autobiography.

I’d think that the parents that did use a cane used a bamboo garden cane. Like slippers, hairbrushes and belts they were available items that were kept for other uses. For a parents to specifically buy something to use for spanking seems a shade sinister. I’ve heard of some things being kept for spankings but not bought expressly for that purpose.
School canes were made for the purpose, to be both effective and ‘safe’. Plimsolls used for SCP were, of course, just an item of footwear the same as a slipper at home. A garden cane must have been quite effective but nothing like as stingy as a proper school rattan cane.
I felt a normal slippers and plimsolls plus a few proper school canes. All hurt but none did any lasting damage.

I remember the reporting of this case:
The boy was 9 when his stepfather took a tall bamboo garden stake and beat him repeatedly, over a period of days, on the buttocks, calves and thighs. Now 12, the boy has gone to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that Britain’s corporal punishment statute — which gave the stepfather the right to carry out the beating — violates European law.
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/10/worl … aning.html