There has been a lot of discussion lately about the existence of the tawsing stool. Did such an item really exist or is it simply a concoction of those same immature and demented entities that invented the golden biscuit, golden rivet, Jacari bat and mixed p.e classes?

Is there any reliable historical evidence to prove that the tawsing stool actually existed and what is the first recorded case of a tawsing stool ever being used?

I have no idea whether there really was a tawsing stool, but there was certainly not a mobile one. I have many Scottish contacts and they have always told me that the tawse was applied on the hand.

As for mixed PE lessons, these are not a myth. At my grammar school in the 70s we did , from time to time , have mixed games lessons. These would consist of basketball, and volleyball, and I also remember playing rounders and hockey in mixed teams with the girls. This would only happen if the playing fields were out of order due to bad weather.We never had PE in the gymnasium with girls where they would have been dressed in the orange bloomers which I have mentioned before.

In one of the mixed hockey games I recall two boys being slippered for fighting, by the female games mistress. No doubt the girls enjoyed the sight.

Hi Declan, you say:

I recall two boys being slippered for fighting, by the female games mistress. No doubt the girls enjoyed the sight.

In view of the oft expressed predilictions of some visitors here I'm tempted to say no doubt the lads enjoyed the slippering, but I won't!

Our ill-informed visitors who say that mixed PE lessons in secondary schools never happened are for the most part the same people who say that male teachers never administered corporal punishment to female pupils. I'll be charitable and say that they labour under the delusion that all schools were identical to the one they attended, but sadly the truth is that they just like making stupid statements.

I think there might well be the odd case of school tawsings other than on the hand, but in general I think you are correct to assume that, in Scottish schools at least, the hand was the normal target. Tawsing stools, certainly not. Motorised Tawsing stools, ROFL! Except of course those diesel tracked ones used in the course of deer stalking on Highland estates.

"Look Noddy" shouted PC Plod "it's one of those motorised Birching Stools"

On a more serious note, the hand being the preferred, there were cases where the tawse was used other than the hand,


http://www.corpun.com/scotland.htm


An interesting fact at the end of the corpun report, saddler John Dick tawse maker
"It is almost fading away in any case because of the difficulty in obtaining the special leathe.


I wonder with modern faming methods, effecting the thickness of hides, if CP had been kept alive, would the Scots have been canny enough to maintain a percentage of herds especially for their thicker hides, and their love of the tawse, or would they have swayed to the cane.


Ketta

Hi Ketta. Great to see you posting in such profusion. This estimable Forum needs as much of a genuine female influence as it can get. I am very impressed with your machanised tawsing stool photograph. However, I can assure you that the much bigger versions used on the larger Highland sporting estates had caterpillar tracks. The descriptions given by 'Ex-Ghillie' in his postings in the 'Caning at home' thread here tally very closely with my own recollections from my Munroing days.

With regard to the quality of hides for tawse manufacture, the canny Scots had already found a solution to the problem. Just prior to 1970 and the raising of school leaving age from 15 to 16 there were widespread fears by Scottish teachers that the then JJ Dick XH tawse, the most formidable punishment instrument available to them, would be inadequate to deal with hulking 16 year olds. JJ Dick's answer was simple, his so-called ROSLA tawse consisted of two medium weight tawses bonded together to give a fearsome implement 15mm (over half an inch) thick. Had school CP continued doubtless this technique would have been utilised to overcome any deficiency in the thickness of available hides.

An interesting pamphlet (PDF format) on tawses is to be found here. Brief details of the ROSLA tawse are on page 3.

Ketta and A_L

Thanks for the information about tawsing on the bottom . It seems it was more widespread than I had thought. A coincidence is that one of the teachers names mentioned in the reports has the same unusual surname as my Aberdeen schoolteacher contact. I wonder if they are related!

This lady certainly looks as she could pack a punch with the old McRostie, or better still the double tawse mentioned by A_L. As I have said I have had no luck eliciting any information from her about the tawse, but I suppose I could go for a comedy line and refer to motorised tawsing stools.

Hi Declan, you say:

I suppose I could go for a comedy line and refer to motorised tawsing stools.

Have a care, your credibility could be in serious jeopardy! Unless of course you invoke Ex-Ghillie and his diesel engined tracked version which seems to have silenced even ISOTOPE FEENY. And I AM touching wood!

Heavy leather was much used for diverse purposes, including tawse manufacture, before the advent of modern composites. The hides were specially processed to produce hard dense leather. The demand for such leather largely disappeared so it was no longer made. I do not think the cows or their hides changed much just the processing.

A_L

I think we are all touching wood re HRH etc.

On the subject , from another thread, of school PE wear, I noticed an advert on TV last night which showed the legendary Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen. This was from 1948 when she won three Olympic gold medals in sprinting events. She was wearing orange bloomers , exactly the same type worn by girls at my school. As my school opened just a few years later perhaps this is what inspired the choice of PE kit at the school.

I did go past the school recently , but didn't see any girls doing PE. I suppose I could ask one of the girls I see every day what they now wear for PE. On the other hand I might not!

Hi Declan,

Orange is of course virtually the Dutch national colour, by association with their Royal Family, which presumably would be why Fanny Blankers-Koen was wearing it. As regards style the high-tech athletic garments of 1948 would doubtless have become the everyday norm for schoolgirls around the time you began your secondary education. When I was the same age equivalent schoolgirl wear looked like this (picture courtesy of Big John MOI) which I imagine is a little more voluminous than was the case with your schoolmates! Colour film wasn't very widespread either!

You say:

I suppose I could ask one of the girls I see every day what they now wear for PE. On the other hand I might not!

A very sensible decision IMHO. Should the young lady press the panic button I fear the fact that you were carrying out essential research for this estimable Forum would not cut much ice with the authorities!

I seem to remember at a UK national school science fair in 1977 the first prize was taken out by a private girls school in Aberdeen.

What was their entry?

You guessed it: a solar powered tawsing stool. This little sucker could reach a speed of 40 km/hr on a very sunny day.

Rumor has it that the prototype was sold to a Scottish Woman's Academy where it was put to good use by the head prefects who employed it to patrol the rather long corridors with McRostie in hand. Needless to say the improvement in behaviour of some cheeky young possums was very dramatic.

Before the cynics and doubting Thomases throw in their tuppence worth, read this:


Aberdeen Girls Academy students harness solar power for school's Earth Week
By Agness McAdam


Agness McAdam /Edinburgh Weekly
HERE COMES THE SUNSixth-formers at Aberdeen Girls Academy race their solar tawsing stools on the school pavement. The project was part of the UK National Science Fair Week events.

Auto manufacturers might want to visit the Aberdeen Girls Academy where sixth formers recently built a solar powered tawsing stool and raced it against other solar powered vehicles.

The solar derby finals were held for sixth-formers during lunch. Music provided by Associated Student Body members including "Sunny Boy" and "Here Comes the Sun."

Senior mistress Miss McRostie watched her students race their creations.

"I like the idea of solar tawsing stools actually running on the road," she said.

"It's really cool. I like how they took the solar energy to make the stools go really fast," said student Veronica McLinden.

The race was the result of an Edinburgh Challenge science project.

The finalists received outdoor mini solar racing kits and a certificate to the famous McShames restaurant.

The top winner received a trophy topped by a 24 kt gold mini solar car.

Nice try, but no cigar, Miss UK 1979!

The earnest seekers after truth who frequent this estimable Forum are quite capable of tracking down the article you have ever so slightly modified for themselves. However, for those who are a bit pushed for time, here is the article from which Miss UK 1979 has drawn her inspiration for the post above.

Needless to say it's about toy cars not tawsing stools, is about a US school and:

• The person who said "I like the idea of solar tawsing stools cars actually running on the road" was student Haydn Marshall not Senior mistress Miss McRostie.
• The student who said "It's really cool. I like how they took the solar energy to make the stools cars go really fast" was called Lyndon Karp not Veronica McLinden.
• The finalists recieved outdoor mini solar racing kits and a certificate to the famous McShames Mimi's restaurant. (We call them vouchers not certificates in the UK, Miss UK 1979.)

I am at a loss to understand why, having included a give away American term like 'Associated Student Body members' as the source of the music (not in Scotland Miss UK 1979, not in Scotland!) Miss Uk 1979 then found it necessary to amend one of the bits of music played, but who am I to try to get inside the weird mind of a 'fun' poster!

A_L

Some good research to disprove the existence of solar powered tawsing stools.

However, at my school the headmaster, with the assistance of the science department developed a solar powered cane. This was a metal object and had the advantage of being used as a conventional cane as well as giving an electric shock.

It was powered by a solar panel which was attached to the headmasters mortar board. You knew a caning was in the offing when you saw the head walking round the school grounds with mortar board on in sunny weather.

At first it worked quite well, but as winter drew in there was not enough sunlight to achieve the required power. It was finally abandoned when the head forgot he was using an electric cane and flexed it in front of some boys and got an electric shock himself.

I find that very hard to believe. Although to be fair, one of my Scottish girlfriends intimated to me that she heard rumors from unnamed sources that the senior mistress had made discrete inquiries to one of the more talented form six science girls about the feasibility of a solar powered tawse.

Now imagine the possibilities of combining a solar powered tawse with a solar powered tawsing stool.

Great stuff Declan! Now can I interest you in a half share in the patent I hold for a diesel powered tracked tawsing stool. Much in demand on the larger Scottish sporting estates!