Looking back at a fearsome weapon once used to thwackdown on naughty schoolchildren

Mind you, it must have stung quite a bit.

We're talking about the tawse, a fearsome instrument of punishment in the hands of Walsall headteachers thwacking down on bad behaviour in school.

The tawse was a three-pronged leather strap and was not only officially approved - it was sent out to heads in the post.

And it was in use well into the mid-1980s when Walsall was believed to be one of only a handful of education authorities still deploying it.

It was not just something for big bad boys (or girls) – this was a punishment also administered in primary schools.

The tawse, which also went by other names such as the belt, or the strap, must have made the cane look like something for sissies. Being made of leather may partly explain why the leather-making town of Walsall was attached to it for so long.

There had long been objections to its use. In December 1966 Councillor C J Andrew produced a tawse at Walsall's education, finance and general purposes sub-committee when he put forward a motion "that this vicious article should be withdrawn from all schools in the borough," although confusingly he was quoted as saying: "I would like to see it used on seniors, but not on juniors."

He said the tawse was sent through the post to schools and was punishment approved by the committee.

"I tried it on my leg and it made me jump and it would certainly make any child jump. A little child told me that a teacher went around with one of these stuck up his jumper."

Nothing came of it as he later withdrew his proposal.