Birching pony

The whipping of a boy over a birching pony, late 19th century.

An interested lady and gentlemen inspect the birching pony used for boys in Clerkenwell Prison, London (1874).

The term birching pony was used to refer to an item of spanking furniture. In some places, the "pony" might have been synonymous with birching horse, or might have referred to a smaller variant of a birching horse, perhaps one for children.

In this wiki we currently use "birching pony" to refer to a special variant of the horse that was used in the 19th century for the corporal punishment of minor offenders (mainly boys, rarely girls) in correctional institutions. It was possibly also called birching stool. The construction differs from a standard four-legged birching horse in that it has a curved convex shape which is designed for the delinquent child or adolescent to be birched in a half-standing position with their feet on the floor. The birching pony is effectively "three-legged". The birchings were always given on the bare buttocks and the offender's legs were parted by the vertical part of the "pony", with their feet placed to the left and right of the base.

Links

• The Greater Manchester Police Museum features an original 19th century "birching stool" with this design, from Minshull Street Courts in Manchester (scroll down about halfway the page)
• Manchester birching stool, photo on Flickr

Jump to: Main Page • Micropedia • Macropedia • Icons • Time Line • History • Life Lessons • Links • Help
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root