To read the rest of Robyn’s work, click on ‘Links and Contributors’ in the above menu, then click on ‘Contributors’ and scroll down to her pages…

…oooOOOooo…

continuing with flogging benches…

The bench in action: Samantha birching a young lady, whilst her assistants, Charlotte and Kate, hold her down. This would have been a wonderful spectacle to witness! It’s just a shame the girls weren’t in period costumes.

A simple flogging bench from a Nu-West film ‘Prison Strappings’. Each inmate has to lie on the bench with a small bolster cushion under their hips to raise their bottoms. The female warder delivers full arm strokes with a prison strap whilst the Prison Governor counts off each stroke:

Nu-West’s ‘deluxe’ version of a flogging bench complete with stout leather strap restraints.

A flogging bench makes its appearance in a Janus story by Richard Manton,  ‘Whips Incorporated’. This story was based on a chastising service provided by a real-life person, a Mrs. Walter, in Clifton, Bristol in the late C19. Mrs. Walter offered a very special service to sensitive parents who felt their girls needed a good thrashing but didn’t like to do it themselves… ‘those who were unnerved by the screams and struggling of their offspring’.

Mrs. Walter advertised her respectable chastising service for unruly daughters in the national papers. One advertisement read: ‘Bad temper, hysteria, idleness etc… cured by strict discipline and careful training’. Her ‘strict discipline and careful training’ essentially involved employing the birch rod across their naked bottoms with varying degrees of severity!

Asa’s Note…

I cover this in detail here…

…https://www.spanking-emporium.co.uk/spanking-emporium/?p=2474

Here is my setting depicting it…

There will be use of my antique spanking bench (from Millhouse Women’s Prison, in Pimlico, opposite the Houses of Parliament), but not took the photos for that part yet, I am still setting my new studio up, and there is only me!

Back to Robyn’s work…

Her establishment possessed a well-equipped punishment room – a high-ceilinged drawing-room of the house which was soundproofed by thick curtains and shutters. There were chairs and sofas for bending over, kneeling over and lying upon. A selection of leather tawses, birch-rods, canes and whips were laid out neatly on a side-table. At the centre of the room was a custom-built table, which Mrs Walter described as being ‘a strong narrow table’ with adjustable attachments – straps for waist, wrists and ankles. A number of cushions could be fastened on the table, either to support the belly of a girl who bent over at one end of it or else to raise the hips and backside of a young woman lying at full length over them.

The unfortunate victim would have to take off her dress, drawers and corset and put on a dressing-gown (hind-part before), a bit like a modern day hospital gown.

In her own words Mrs. Walter described her methods, what she called her ‘modus operandi’:

‘Placing her face down on the table, I fasten the straps underneath it. Then I fasten the knees together, wrists the same, unless I anticipate a struggle— then I use anklets and wristlets, and fasten her limbs to the legs of the table. Unfastening the dressing-gown, her bottom is found at the right angle for punishing.

Then I talk seriously to her, show her the nature of the fault, and the need of punishment as a cure. Next I put on the waist band, after having told her that if she submits quietly no one needs to know; if she struggles I must call in help (girls generally prefer to be quiet).

Taking up the birch, which is between 2 and 3 feet long, very thin and pliable, I measure my distance, and standing at the side, I proceed to strike slowly but firmly. By moving gently forward, each stroke is differently placed and six strokes may well be enough if given with full force. If the fault has been such as to need more severe correction, then I begin on the other side and work back again. For screams, increased strokes must be given. If a girl tries very hard to bear it bravely, then perhaps I give 10 instead of 12.

Directly after it is finished I cover up the part exposed, unfasten the girl, and, finding her probably much subdued, help to resolutions of amendment. If this birching has been judiciously and conscientiously administered, the girl will bear against the operation no resentment, but be ready to ‘kiss and be friends’. 

After allowing the culprit a little time to compose herself and redress, I expect her to join the others, and no mention of any kind is made of the punishment unless future misconduct makes it necessary, and this is not often. 

Birching is an extraordinary thing, not an everyday work, therefore care must be taken that the operator has the proper nerve and patience for the operation. Mothers are the proper persons to whip girls; but if they do not have the necessary nerve, then it is better to appoint a deputy. 

After this serious business is over, much steady patience is needed, for a birching is no use whatever if a girl is to be petted again and allowed to do just as she likes. She must be under firm, kind discipline. None of my girls have been more attached to me than those whom I have been obliged to discipline severely. They have a great respect for those who can master them, and who do not taunt them with past misdeeds. One good scolding is worth months of ‘nagging’. Efforts at amendment must be encouraged, and those having the charge of girls must not expect to reform them all at once. ‘Rome was not built in a day’. The old Adam will sometimes show itself, and for checking his work nothing is so useful as a birch rod judiciously used.’

Here is an edited extract from Richard Manton’s story ‘Whips Incorporated’ relating to Mrs. Walter:

‘In the punishment room, Lisa, a girl of nineteen, lies on her belly over the cushions, wrists stretched to the forward corners of the table supporting her, feet tightly together at the other end. Lisa’s knickers and skirt have been removed. Her backside has a wider but lithe and agile shape in this posture. 

The mistress chooses a truly wicked birch to give poor Lisa thirty strokes across her bare backside. Three smooth willow switches, a yard long and quiveringly supple, bound together at the handle. 

Fresh from the well-salted water, the birch is touched across Lisa’s resilient young bum-cheeks. She gives a little gasp and her buttocks tighten at the cold wet droplets of brine. Mrs. Walter smiles and makes her wait for it. The mistress wedges another cushion under Lisa’s fair-fleeced loins to raise the girl’s rear cheeks more fully. Terror fills the broad innocence of Lisa’s 19-year-old face. 

Thrash! goes the birch and Lisa shrieks at the sheer intensity of the smart. The mistress cuts this way and that across the surging, writhing cheeks of Lisa’s bottom. Screams are answered by sharp reprimands, pleading is countered by savage lashing. With all the extra strokes she earns, 19-year-old Lisa spends a long afternoon on the wooden flogging-bench, her buttocks bright with scorching stripes.’

‘Dreams of Spanking’ produced a film ‘Mrs. Smith’s Method for Reforming Intractable Girls’ based on the character of Mrs. Walter (whose real surname was actually ‘Smith’). Molly Malone plays the part of Mrs. Smith, a Victorian disciplinarian who considers it to be her duty to take care of wayward young women and help them towards the path of righteousness. 

This is quite spectacular and will be covered in part 3 of this stirring article.

More to come…