When I was in primary school, children were ‘given the sandshoe’ if they were naughty. The nervous child would lie over the teachers knee & would be whacked with a black canvas gym shoe. When I progressed to middle school, the chosen weapon was the black board duster! A certain ferocious teacher appeared to take great pleasure in throwing it at the head of any pupil who was talking in class. That thing would really hurt as it had a wooden edge, and you would often see children in the playground with a mark on their forehead and you instantly knew what lesson they had just come out of!
Within our collection we hold numerous school punishment books as well as punishment books for the Netherton Training School [North Eastern Reformatory] and the Wellesley Training Ship (https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/2016/06/30/the-wellesley-training-ship/
The cane or tawse (leather strap with one end split into a number of tails) were two of the most popular implements used to punish children and young adults. After looking through some of the books it became evident that punishments were often unfair and inconsistent. One child received eight strokes of the cane on their posterior for stealing while another was given the same treatment for simply being absent from church. Inconsistencies like this were common throughout many of the books I viewed.
The tables below highlight some of the kinds of mischief juveniles ‘got up to’ and the type of punishment that was dispensed. All the punishment books in our collection have a 100-year closure period to protect the identity of the individuals. No names of children or young adults will be given.
Netherton Training School [North Eastern Reformatory]
| YEAR | OFFENCE | METHOD OF PUNISHMENT | NUMBER OF STROKES | PART OF THE BODY |
| 1907 | Picking a lock with a knife | Tawse | Six | Posterior |
| 1907 | Destroying clothing | Cane | Eight | Hand |
| 1908 | Personal indecency in bed | Tawse | Eight | Posterior |
| 1908 | Suspicious conduct in bed | Cane | Eight | Hand |
| 1908 | Dropping a weaker boy in a pig trough | Tawse | Three | Posterior |
| 1909 | Scoffing at Jews | Cane | Six | Hand |
| 1909 | Eating food out of the pig bucket | Cane | Four | Hand |
| 1914 | Making up his wet bed knowing it to be wet after several warnings | Tawse | Nine | Posterior |
Wellesley Training Ship
| YEAR | OFFENCE | METHOD OF PUNISHMENT | NUMBER OF STROKES | PART OF THE BODY |
| 1955 | Absconding | Strap | Six | Posterior |
| 1955 | Breaking Bounds whist on leave | Strap | Eight | Posterior |
| 1955 | Brawling | Strap | Four-Eight | Posterior |
| 1955 | Stealing | Strap | Eight | Posterior |
| 1956 | Bullying | Strap | Six | Posterior |
| 1958 | Out of bounds at night | Strap | Four | Posterior |
| 1958 | Smoking in dormitory | Strap | Four | Posterior |
School Punishment Books
| SCHOOL | YEAR | OFFENCE | METHOD OF PUNISHMENT | NUMBER OF STROKES | PART OF THE BODY |
| Matfen County Primary | 1901 | Talking in class & copying | Strap | One | Hand |
| Matfen County Primary | 1908 | Pouring water over a boy’s head | Strap | Two | Hand |
| Amble St. Cuthbert’s Roman Catholic First School | 1934 | Careless & untidy work | Cane | Two | Hand |
| Amble St. Cuthbert’s Roman Catholic First School | 1938 | Ungentlemanly behaviour towards a female teacher | Cane | Four | Hand |
| Amble St. Cuthbert’s Roman Catholic First School | 1969 | Stealing from vending machine using plastic coins from the school | Cane | Three | Posterior |
| Brown Rigg Camp School | 1979 | Attempting to punch a member of staff | Strap | Two | Posterior |
| Brown Rigg Camp School | 1979 | Grafitti on desk | Strap | One | Hand |
| Brown Rigg Camp School | 1984 | Stealing a sharp knife from domestic science room & throwing the knife at a boy, penetrating the skin & drawing blood | Strap | Two | Hand |