One of my favourites too. Thank you for an interesting article.

That's a great article, I have to admit that I still have major issues with the fact that prefects were ever allowed to administer physical punishment of any sort, although I know it did occur. I wonder if any hard done by student ever met a prefect later in life and handed out a beating of their own.

A much maligned implement, but one of my favourites.

Wow, this made me smile. Originally from the West Country, I wore daps for cross country running and yes felt the stones underfoot. I was also the recipient of the dap on my bottom.

Thank you for reminding me with your wonderful article, happy days indeed. The dap remains my favoured implement.

It must have been a posh school if they allowed prefects to beat. Plimsoll's were usually black and a favourite instrument of countless PE masters! Perhaps a favourite instrument of countless PE mistress too which is a much more interesting thought! I think the humble plimsoll has a certain eroticism especially black ones and of course it's meant to be kinder than the cane! Thanks for the excellent article jimisim

The slipper (plimsoll) is kinder than the cane and having been the recipient of both items I know which I`d rather have. My most memorable slipperings were at the hands of a very fit, muscular PE teacher who did employ a run-up as was mentioned in Jimisim`s excellent article and this made the delivery all the more potent.

What always amazed me was I never felt the sting immediately for some reason. There was a thud as the slipper made contact then a sort of numbness for a second or two before the nerve receptors in my buttock started to shriek with alarm. The stinging sensation did subside fairly quickly giving way to a not altogether unpleasant, moderately painful throb with a feeling of warmth and maybe this is why the slipper is my favourite implement of all.

A very good article Jimisim, thanks a lot.

Excellent article - sober, highly informative and evocative of a bygone era. Delightfully illustrated too. Thank you.

DannySwottem5 You've described the sting of a plimsolling perfectly, my only addition would be when the pain receptors went off it raced up my spine and gave me a very brief gagging sensation before racing down to the area I now know to be my prostate. Make no mistake the sting was very intense but thankfully short-lived.
Jimi

Great article, the plimsoll is without doubt my fav, can be difficult to find a lady who can use it well but a good long slippering has everything I wish for!

When I was at secondary school every day the slipper was used the noise used to echo around the corridors and if a slippering was being administered in the gym the noise kept echoing long after the punishment. I even witnessed bare bottom slippering from the showers.

A very interesting article about a much under-rated implement. At my school (An all boys grammar) the slipper was wielded by PE teachers and hurt more than the cane . It was nearly always given across the bottom only protected by a pair of thin gym shorts. It would leave a raised dark red welt across both cheeks which would invariably turn into a bruise.
It was given for a variety of misdemeanors and would leave the bottom of the miscreant sore for at least two days.

A great article jimisim. At our school, things were rather different from blimp's in that the white plimsoll ruled! And when I say ruled I mean ruled! I quite like the sting nowadays, of course. Our PE master was really creepy though, and not a figure I could ever imagine anyone developing a fetish for.

Hey that was really interesting. I was too young and they had stopped using the slipper or plimsoll at school when I was at school. but we did have teachers who would mention it (only a couple) and they would more chuckle about it than say anything nasty. We did a project of "then and now" and it seemed like huge numbers of pupils did used to get slippered in the past, a lot more than got the cane. You do still get girls plimsolls, just cheap ones at Primark and places, that girls tend to wear just as light shoes, although I don;t think boys do. I have got some but I'm only a size 4 or 5 and they would be a bit tiny to spank with, I think! I have had a slipper, lots of times, but that was a proper slipper for wearing at home and not a plimsoll. The slipper is just a bit stingy and not torture and from what you describe, the plimsoll must have been a bit similar. I wonder why they stopped using it in school? did people think it was too harsh or did it just go out of fashion? It seems a bit silly that they stopped it, when you think of how kids misbehave nowadays in school (and no I am not some old Victorian, I'm a student and I can tell you from quite recent experience that kids do play up so why not have a punishment available that will stop them.)

Any way thank you for the article, it was nice to have a factual piece for once.

A fine treatise on plimsolls and the fact that they can also be used for sports is new information for me!

An interesting and very evocative article.

While as you say the cane was the implement which was more inevitably formal, at my boarding school the gym-shoe could be used with great formality too! Although the cane was used occasionally by the headmaster, usually upon more senior boys, the principal implement was the gym-shoe, wielded by the senior master.

Picture two boys who had had the temerity to have a pillow-fight after lights out, ordered by the matron to report to Mr N on his arrival at the school the next day! We had to hang around for him in the front hall after breakfast, and were solemnly ordered to go and wait for him in the changing-room. There we had to take our trousers off, bend across his knees, and were whacked with the gym-shoe - which we had seen with awe, kept as it was in the corner of the changing room! - upon our under-pants. The other boy, who had had a beating the previous term, got three whacks, I, for whom it was my first time, got two!

I had been very frightened and upset before hand (and had been teased mercilessly by the other boys before breakfast), but of course when time came found that it was not actually as painful as I had supposed, and did not cryat the actual experience, only at the prospect of it.

I always remember his final words as we put our trousers on again, telling us not to do it again: "I don't like it and you don't like it and I'm sure Mrs C [the Matron] doesn't like it!"

But of course it was not my last beating - I got the gymshoe some five times over the next three or four years - total 11 strokes, worst one 4 - but I never had the cane. At the time I was rather glad, but in retrospect that is a matter of some regret! I had to wait till I was grown-up to find out what the cane was like! Maybe I should write up my other experiences as an article for Well-Red Weekly!

This takes me back to my schooldays too.

Thank you for some informative reminiscences. I too witnessed the plimsoll used on others at my grammar school but managed to avoid it myself. Something I have made up for in later life and it is a favourite implement to experience. I thought it would be easier than the cane or tawse but it has its own challenges, if used with skill!

I love history and this provided an insight to a time period and instrument. Well done, it is interesting that Prefects could paddle, I am sure there was some control. Very well written and done, thanks.

A great article about an iconic punishment instrument, I well remember how much even one stroke stung!

Sadly never got it at my Grammar School. All teachers used the cane usually at the end of lesson or break. Occasionally a teacher would use the cane in front of the class though.

My first punishment at school was with the plimsoll.
I was about 12. I got it from a P.E teacher along with about 10 other boys. We queued up to get 2 whacks across our gym shorts, (we were not allowed to wear underwear).
Although it certainly stung, it wasn't too bad and I was later glad to have been initiated. Better to get your first spanking in a large group, rather than on your own in front of the class.

This popped up via Lucky Dip, and I'm very glad it did! I love the slipper and reading more about it from you was very interesting indeed. Thank you for writing and researching.