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FLOGGING BENCHES

These look more comfortable than a sawhorse. At its simplest, a flogging bench is just a long, low wooden bench to which a spankee lain along the bench and secured in place with ropes or straps. Alternatively they can be held by two other people. The spanker therefore has to strike downwards with a strap, cane or birch, gravity aiding the force of each stroke!

Such benches appear in the novel ‘Nell in Bridewell’ by W. Reinhard:

The three illustrations below are from the 1934 edition of ‘Nell in Bridewell’. The artist is unknown. According to Amazon’s description of the book:

“ ‘Nell in Bridewell’’ is the story, in the form of fiction based on fact, of a young girl who experienced the horrors and indignities of a 19th Century House of Correction in Germany. In this book, Nell describes in graphic terms the merciless floggings she witnessed— of girls and young women, as well as of boys and men—, and confesses to disturbingly confusing emotions that such sights occasioned in her. She recalls the lustful expressions on the faces of the onlookers, records the fervent words of gratitude to the skillful flogger from the lips of grand ladies who ‘were only too delighted to see such girls whipped’,  and tells of the evidently sensual appetites such cruelties incited in the torturers. She re-lives in vivid detail the dreadful whipping she herself was subjected to— –  the so-called ‘Welcome’, a public flogging with a bull’s pizzle.”

‘Bridewells’ were a special type of prison, established mainly during C18 and early C19 to address particular social problems that had emerged in London and other urban areas  such as petty theft, prostitution, vagrancy, begging, swearing, drunkenness and assault. By the 1700s there were over 170 such prisons in Britain. 

Bridewells took their name from the very first such institution which was established in one of the old Royal Palaces –  Bridewell Palace in London. The palace was originally built as one of the residences for King Henry VIII. It was later given to the City of London in 1553 by his son King Edward VI for use as an orphanage and place of correction for wayward women.

The purpose of these ‘houses of correction’ or ‘reformatories’ was to punish and correct offenders, not merely to hold them in incarceration. Most prisoners were therefore given punishments, which were determined by the governors. These were usually whipping and/or being put to hard labour, typically beating hemp. Whippings were notoriously carried out in front of the governors, and could be observed by others from a public gallery. It was not unusual that a person consigned to a bridewell would be given a ‘welcome’ flogging to punish them for whatever offence they had committed, as well as a ‘farewell’ flogging on discharge to remind them of what would happen if they ‘strayed’ again! Floggings were also frequently awarded for any infractions of reformatory rules and misbehaviour during their stay in the reformatory.

An illustration by a modern artist called Anton of ‘Nell in Bridewell’. Note how the artist has placed an additional wooden strut under the girl’s stomach to raise her buttocks up more prominently:

The idea was that these men, women and children would be imprisoned in Bridewells for a short period of time and taught to work. In other words, they could be reformed, or transformed into productive members of society. Bridewells were trying to address the problems of poverty and petty crime. They were originally distinct from gaols which were primarily used to hold prisoners on long-term remand for more serious offences. 

During the late 18th century and 19th century, gaols (primarily used to hold prisoners on remand) and bridewells (houses of correction) started to be amalgamated. They began to share some functions, and they often became part of one institution (for example a county gaol and house of correction, on the same site, sometimes in the same building, and under the same management, rather than two separate institutions). In 1865, the distinction between gaols and the bridewells was officially abolished.

A modern example of a flogging bench complete with foot stocks built by ‘Djeki.ru’:

A Collage of a school punishment from a film made by ‘Her First Punishment’ entitled ‘Old School’. Three girls are whipped by their teacher with a birch switch. No elaborate straps or stocks are used to hold the victim in place – the girls are required to take it in turns to hold each other down on the flogging bench:

Asa’s Kate trying out an antique flogging bench. It is Asa’s ‘pride and joy’. Apparently it is actually a Victorian women’s prison bed, which doubles up into a flogging bench. It has an ingenious adjustable top which enables the spankee’s bottom to be raised to an appropriate height. I like the mirror positioned in front of the bench so that she would be able to watch the spanker in action, although she might also enjoy another mirror to the side to enable her to watch her own bottom being strapped. She looks as though she cannot wait to receive her strapping!

More to come….