In March of 1883 hundreds of teachers from across the country gathered in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for their annual conference where the topic of corporal punishment was brought up.

During the discussion a headmaster from Essex - a Mr Clarkson from a school in Stratford - urged his colleagues to continue chastising children with the cane.

Mr Clarkson read out an academic paper on the benefits of physically punishing children, and bemoaned the Department for Education for interfering in such matters. He believed teachers should be allowed to mete out whatever form of discipline they deemed fitting when it came to misbehaving pupils - without fear of reprisals.

Resolutions were passed at the conference in favour of corporal punishment and the teachers went back to their respective schools, no doubt emboldened by the meeting.

READ MORE: 

Corporal punishment in the classroom at this time was a normal part of school life.

It took a lot for a teacher to be hauled over the coals for going over the top, but occasionally teachers did find themselves in trouble.

In the winter of 1910, a very unpleasant case came to light in south Essex.

Cornelius Valentine Barker, the schoolmaster of Pitsea, was accused of assaulting 11-year-old pupil John Arnold from Thundersley.

The case reached the Rochford Petty Sessions Court after the victim’s parents pressed charges.

The allegation came about after Arnold returned to school 10 minutes late after lunch one day.

The youngster lived a mile-and-half away from the school and had to walk to and from classes every day – as well as walking home for lunch.

On this occasion it was raining so he had to change his clothes as home, making him late for afternoon lessons.

Arnold was told to stay back after school for detention but as he was feeling poorly he went straight home. The next day when he got to school Barker gave him four “handers”.

The court heard how after the boy screamed that he was going to tell his father, Barker “took him across his knee and severely caned him on the buttocks”.

Barker told the boy: “If you let anyone outside hear the noise I will give you some more.”

Arnold ran home and told his parents about the beating. He was in so much pain he couldn’t sleep that night and a doctor had to be called.

Fellow pupil Reggie Hopwood gave evidence at the trial and described how he saw “the master give Arnold a good thrashing while he held him on his knee.”

Dr Cosmo Grant of Thundersley, who had been called out to see Arnold, also gave his opinion on the extent of the injuries: “To cause wheals of such extent and character considerable force must have been used, considerably more force than should have been used,” he admitted.

The court determined Barker had used excessive force and fined him £1 as well as court costs.

Mr Barker didn’t just get off with a fine, however. A few days after the court case Arnold’s stepfather, Charles Clark, came across Barker in the street in Pitsea and gave him a piece of his mind – and his fists.

Clarke, a firewood salesman, saw Barker riding his bike to school and stopped him in order to rebuke him over the caning incident. The pair got into an altercation and Clarke pushed the teacher off his bike and “pulled his nose”. Clarke was fined 10 shillings for the assault.

It wasn’t just teachers who were allowed to administer corporal punishment.

In 1894 a school nurse named Ella Gillispie was charged with carrying out such barbaric cruelty to young children in her care that the case made headlines all over the country.

Ella may have been a 54-year-old woman who stood just 5ft 3ins tall, but her malicious nature was so great that she made Mr Creakle, the evil headmaster from David Copperfield, seem like a lamb.

She was the nurse at the Hackney Union Training School which stood in London Road, Brentwood.

The school cared for around 600 children and orphans, yet until 1894 the systemic cruelty suffered by the youngsters went under the radar.

It was in this year that Ella - respected in her parish as a stalwart churchgoer - was put on trial for beating 21 of the children at the school - including hitting one of them so badly that she died.

When the details of Ella’s reign of terror came to light in court, people were literally sickened.

The nurse had hit seven-year-old Eliza Clarke across the head so ferociously that the young girl died a short while later.

At least four other children had their heads split open by the nurse and numerous others had wheals on the soles of their feet where she had hit them.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Ella frequently hit the youngest children with branches of stinging nettles, made them kneel on boiling hot pipes, pushed their heads in water, cut their heads with a set of keys and pushed them against the wall.

She also deprived them of water. The court heard how during the summer the tots became so thirsty they went to the ‘WC pan’ and tried to get drops of water from it.

Louisa Newman, a pupil at the school was hit on the head by Ella because she put a coat on the bed.

Elizabeth Fawcett, 13, was bashed on the arm with a frying pan by the nurse.

Another victim, 11-year-old Mary La Count, told the court: “I remember Nurse Gillispie finding fault with me for leaving one of the children out of bed. For this she slapped me, making my nose bleed. This was just before Christmas. She also knocked my head against the wall.”

We passionately believe in providing unrivalled quality journalism and value for money.

With a digital subscription, you can access our exclusive, insightful and trustworthy local news from just £1 a week.

If you are not already subscribing, sign up today to get instant access to our trusted local coverage - and an ad-light experience - check what package works best for you here.

Little Walter Gibbons, aged seven, gave heartbreaking testimony. Standing in the witness box he said: “Nurse Gillispie ducked my head in the fire bucket once and knocked my head against the wall twice. It was because I was a bad boy. I had been talking. She also hit me on the bare legs with a cane.”

Another youngster revealed how Ella would send the older children to the meadow to collect stinging nettles, then she’d wake up the little ones at night and hit them on their bare backs with the nettles.

It was also revealed that Ella had a preferred method of punishment where she would wake the children up in the night and make them walk up and down their dormitories for hours on end with heavy baskets on their heads. If they stumbled they would be hit.

Several workers at the school testified to witnessing Ella treat the children cruelly, hitting them and carrying out her “basket drills” but none alerted the authorities.

A further twist developed when the court heard how the matron of the school - Kate Hadwick - had turned a blind eye to Ella’s behaviour because the pair were involved in a romantic relationship.

Intimate letters between the two women were read out during the court case - much to the displeasure of Mr Hadwick, the matron’s husband, who also worked at the school.

He refused to believe the pair were anything but friends.

Ella and the Hadwicks were frequently booed and hissed at during their court appearances. The Hadwicks even had flour thrown at them by the baying crowd.

Ella initially denied all charges, but as the evidence mounted up she switched her plea to guilty. The judge was not impressed with her.

It turned out after a warrant was made for her arrest she had fled to take refuge with friends in Rayleigh.

When the police finally found her they discovered a letter in her handbag where she had written to a prospective new employer, describing how she was “fond of children”.

Ella escaped being tried for murder of Eliza Clarke because it could not be 100 per cent proved that the tot had died due to the beating. She wouldn’t get away with anything else though.

The judge, upon sentencing her, said: “I cannot do less than pass upon you the maximum punishment of the law which is that you be kept in penal servitude for five years.

“You have delighted in torturing these children. You have inflicted all sorts of punishments upon the children.

“I feel that I am dealing with a person who has systematically indulged in cruelties and taken a pride and delight in torturing these poor little children.”

As Ella was led away to start her prison sentence she was again hissed at by people in the public gallery. She never once expressed any regret for her crimes.

It would take another century for corporal punishment to be phased out. In 1956 the Essex Education Committee brought in a rule that girls in the county could only be caned by women and not by male teachers.

Physical punishment was finally outlawed in schools in Britain in 1986.