Memories: The Pain of the foot-long ferula

Former pupils of a Liverpool Jesuit school remember the ferula – a piece of whalebone wrapped in rubber which was roughly a foot long, with a shaped end. One recalls, “If a teacher judged that an offence had been committed, he wrote out a bill. He gave the offender a small piece of paper – name, date, number of ferulas, the offence and the teacher’s signature. Ferulas usually came in 3s, 6s, 9s or 12s. Twice 9 and even twice 12 were not unheard of.”

In Jesuit tradition; FELICITY NEWSON on the history of one of Liverpool's most famous schools . . .

 OLD boy Jimmy McGovern disliked it intensely and couldn't wait to leave.

Another ex-pupil, Jimmy Tarbuck, has few fond memories of the place he recalls as staffed by ``cruel, vindictive teachers'' and marked by an atmosphere of fear.

Although St Francis Xavier's College in Liverpool fails to stir nostalgia in two of its more famous sons, it retains a place in the hearts of many former pupils.

Author and ex-student Pat Heery has researched the history of the school and turned it into a book.

Pat, who lives in London, traces SFX back to the day of its foundation, October 27, 1842, when just two pupils turned up to sign their names on the register.

St Francis Xavier's Preparatory Classical and Commercial Day School was situated at 36 Soho Street and charged £2 10 shillings per quarter.

The foundation of SFX, now based in Woolton, was bound up with the Jesuit struggle to establish a church in Everton and the school has retained its strong religious affiliations throughout.

The emphasis of the Jesuits on classical education has always been important on the curriculum.

One legendary head teacher, Fr Neylan, described the main fire regulation as “in the event of a fire make sure that those boys studying Greek get out first.”

Pressure was put on brighter pupils to aim for an Oxbridge Classics degree and by the 1940s Greek was the most popular subject in terms of university scholarships.

Another, less illustrious, aspect of school life was the dreaded ferula, or flat ruler, used for corporal punishment.

The ferula used at SFX was reputed to be a piece of whalebone wrapped in rubber and was roughly a foot long, with a shaped end.

As Pat Heery says: “Let's be clear from the outset – it hurt. It could be very painful indeed, depending on who was administering the punishment.

“If a teacher judged that an offence had been committed, he wrote out a bill. He gave the offender a small piece of paper – name, date, number of ferulas, the offence and the teacher’s signature.

“Ferulas usually came in 3s, 6s, 9s or 12s. Twice 9 and even twice 12 were not unheard of.”

Bill Bewley, a pupil in 5S in 1953, received twice 12 for knocking Fr Neylan to the ground. He had hurled a gym bag through the classroom door as the good father was entering.

Apparently the most ferocious ferula regime was conducted by Fr McHale, who headed the school from 1898.

“His appointment heralded a return to boy beating on a scale that was excessive even for the day,'' Pat says.

“The boys cheered uncharitably when it was announced that Fr McHale had died.'”

Ferulas were meted out for poor work as well as bad behaviour, an injustice which rankled with boys.

A maths teacher called Beaky Jones was notorious for punishing homework which scored below 7/10 with ferulas, and boys dreaded their exercise books being handed back and an ominous ferula bill falling out.

Another teacher, Fr Garrold, devised a less cruel system of punishment and reward, based on (fictitious) fines and rewards.

Each boy had a bank book and cheque book and accounts were balanced weekly.

Fines included 2/6d for “semirowdiness”, sixpence for an undisguised yawn, a penny for clicking the fingers, one shilling for an unsolicited comment, two shillings for a needless question and – quirkiest of all – sixpence for a “mad answer.”

Fr Garrold’s system also included homework, with boys scoring the highest A+ grade awarded three shillings, while a score of D minus incurred a two shilling penalty.

Extracted from the Liverpool Echo, 15 June 2002.

Picture credit: CP Services, London.

 

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