The split and frayed end of this cane
caused a lot of pain
at Norbury Manor Boys' School.

Children were hit with the cane
by their teachers
when they had done something wrong
but Paul tried to use his
as little as possible.
He felt that it was cruel.

Paul started teaching
at Norbury Manor Boys' School in 1963:

"I went into teaching
very firmly of the opinion
that this was a pretty barbaric
and uncivilized thing
to do to children
and I'm having none of it.
But the Head at the time
firmly believed in the cane,
and in training
all his probationary teachers
to use it."

"The first time
I ever used it
was on his express instructions
in front of the offending child,
so you could hardly back out.
There was this imposing Head &
and this fat little boy
who had been rude,
and I had to give him two whacks
on his outstretched hand.
I felt absolutely awful of course."

"In fact kids then
actually much preferred the cane
than they did
other forms of teacher punishment -
you can be very cruel to children
verbally.
Quite rightly
the rules about using the cane
became more strict
and eventually
only the Head was allowed
to do the caning.
I must have put my cane away
in a cupboard
and thought -
'well one day
that'll be an interesting relic.'"

In the early 1960s,
teachers could hit children
with the cane
as often as they felt necessary.
Paul Sowan used his cane very little,
other teachers
caned children much more.

In the 1960s and 1970s,
schools started to limit
how the cane was used.
The right of children
not to be beaten
was upheld by campaign groups.
Caning
and other physical punishments
were banned from British state schools
in 1987.

This cane is on loan from
CNHSS: Croydon
Natural History and Scientific Society.

To find out more about CNHSS
visit their website:

www.greig51.freeserve.co.uk/cnhss