Welsh Not

Mock-up of an old school at the West Wales Museum of Childhood, Llangeler, with a Welsh Not on the right-hand side of the desk

The Welsh Not (also Welsh knot, Welsh note, Welsh lump, Welsh stick or cwstom) was an item used by schools in Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries to promote the use of the English language by stigmatising, even punishing, children who were heard using the Welsh language.

The device

"Endeavoured to compel the children to converse in English by means of a piece of wood. Offenders to be shut in after school hours."

Llansantffraid Board School log book. 8 February 1870.

The Welsh Not was also known as the "Welsh knot", "Welsh note", "Welsh lump", "Welsh stick", "Welsh lead" (if a lump of lead was used) or the "cwstom". Typically the Not was a piece of wood, a ruler or a stick, often inscribed with the letters "WN", used in schools in Wales to attempt to promote the use of the English language. This was given to the first pupil to be heard speaking Welsh. When another child was heard using Welsh, the Not was taken from its current holder and given to the latest offender. Whoever was in possession of the Not was encouraged to pass it on to any of their Welsh-speaking classmates by informing the teacher that they had caught someone else speaking Welsh. The pupil in possession at the end of the day was subjected to corporal punishment or other penalty (some reports suggest the punishment was administered at the end of the week, or at the end of each lesson).

History

Welsh schools in 1847

"as far as your experience goes, there is a general desire for education, and the parents are desirous that their children should learn the English language?" and replied "Beyond anything."

Anglican clergyman from Pembrokeshire giving evidence to the Inquiry for South Wales in 1843

Of the 1,419 schools in Wales surveyed in the Enquiry into the State of Education in Wales 1847 the language of instruction for 1,321 was English only, for 96 it was English and Welsh and for 2 it was Welsh only. There is some doubt that one of the two Welsh only schools was in fact a Welsh only school.

The teaching of English in Welsh schools was demanded by the Welsh public and parents who saw it as the language of economic advancement. The teaching of Welsh was left to Sunday schools.

"Cannot get the children from the habit of talking in Welsh; the school as a whole is backward in English."

British School, Aberaeron Log book. 5th November, 1880.

So 99.9% of the schools surveyed taught in English and the vast majority (93%) of them did not just teach English but also used English for all of their lessons. Some schools banned the use of Welsh in the classroom and playground in an attempt to force children to use and become proficient in English.

The enquiry found that the quality of schools in Wales was awful. (In common with England.) Poor buildings, untrained teachers and an almost complete absence of suitable books. Many children did not go to school at all and those that did were often absent for long periods. The enquiry found that many schools were attempting to teach English without translating from Welsh and as a result the children did not know the meaning of the words they were learning. They also came across one school using a Welsh Not. The enquiry condemned its use as educational nonsense and something that would teach children to be dishonest.

The enquiry was controversial because of the comments it made about Welsh society and, to a lesser degree, the comments it made about the Welsh language. However it's support for the teaching of English in Wales was met with universal agreement by the Welsh public and parents.

Welsh language restriction

Under Henry VIII the Act of Union 1536 brought the whole of Wales under the authority of the English Crown and Welsh speakers were required to know and use English when holding public office.

In reality the use of the Welsh Not was primarily used by the Welsh in Welsh run schools prior to the Education Act 1870.

Origin

The antiquary Richard Warner heard of the use of a "Welsh lump" in Flintshire in 1798, well before the enactment of the Education Act 1870. There is strong evidence of pre-1870 use in Carmarthen, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd, but it was not government policy. Given that schooling was voluntary then, Welsh Not use would have had parental approval.

Cultural impact

"Among other injurious effects, this custom has been found to lead children to visit stealthily the houses of their school-fellows for the purpose of detecting those who speak Welsh to their parents, and transferring to them the punishment due to themselves."

Inquiry into the state of Education in Wales, 1847.

The use of the Welsh Not created a stigma in using the Welsh Language. However work from groups such as the Welsh Language Society after the passing of the Education Act 1870 tried to fight for the right to speak Welsh and learn through the medium of Welsh in schools, and to advocate bilingualism in classrooms. Although their campaigning resulted in the encouragement of teaching Welsh History and Geography within schools, the Education system continued to become further dominated by the English system.

Later use

"The speaking of Welsh in school was strictly forbidden; any boy or girl guilty of the offence was given the Welsh Not, which he or she handed on to the next offender, the unfortunate one who held the Welsh Not at the end of the school session becoming the scapegoat who bore the punishment for the sins of all.

Mother, being a lively child, was in frequent possession of the Welsh Not, but was never allowed to pay the penalty; a chivalrous boy cousin always asked for it in Welsh and took the punishment himself."

Account of the writer's mothers experiences in The Welsh Outlook, May 1931.

The use of the Welsh Not appears to have decreased with the introduction of compulsory education in the later decades of the 19th century. After the school boards were absorbed by the county councils following the Local Government Act 1888, instruction in Welsh became the norm in primary schools in Welsh-speaking areas. However, incidents of the Welsh Not were still reported.

Owen Morgan Edwards describes his experience of the Welsh Not in school in Llanuwchllyn in his book Clych Atgof.

Contemporary reports

1798: The antiquary Richard Warner heard of the use of a "Welsh lump" in Flintshire in 1798.

1843 Anglican clergyman from Pembrokeshire Rev R. Bowen Jones giving evidence to the Inquiry for South Wales in 1843 “The school master in my parish, for instance, amongst the common Welsh people has a little toy on a little bit of wood, and on the wood is written “Welsh not” that is to say they must not speak Welsh; it is a mark, and they pass this mark one to another. The rule of the school is that there is no Welsh to be spoken in the school; if anybody speaks a word of Welsh he is to have the Welsh mark, which he is to carry about his neck, or to hold it in his hand. There is the greatest anxiety to catch one another speaking Welsh, and there is a cry out immediately, “Welsh not”.” November 1843. Inquiry for South Wales.

1847 Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of Education in Wales, 1847. “My attention was attracted to a piece of wood, suspended by a string round a boy’s neck, and on the wood were the words “Welsh stick”.This I was told was a stigma for speaking Welsh. But in fact his only alternative was to speak Welsh or to say nothing. He did not understand English, and there is no systematic exercise in interpretation. The Welsh stick, or Welsh, as it’s sometimes called, is given too any pupil who is overheard speaking Welsh, and may be transferred by him to any schoolfellow whom he hears committing a similar offence. It is thus passed from one another until the close of the week, when the pupil in who’s possession the Welsh is found is punished by flogging. Among other injurious effects, this custom has been found to lead children to visit stealthily the houses of their schoolfellows for the purposes of detecting those who speak Welsh to their parents, and transferring to them the punishment due to themselves”

1870 The Llansantffraid Board School log book. 8 February 1870 "Endeavoured to compel the children to converse in English by means of a piece of wood. Offenders to be shut in after school hours."

See also

• Language policy
• Symbole
• Vergonha (French suppression of regional languages), and specifically le symbole in French schools.
• Dialect card Hōgenfuda (方言札, "dialect card"), suppression of Ryukyuan languages and dialects of the Tōhoku region in Japan.
• In Canada, Canadian gaelic was suppressed by use of the "maide-crochaidh" "hanging stick"
• Russification, policies in Imperial Russia and Soviet Union.
• The White terror, a Taiwanese policy from 1949 to 1987 that suppressed non-Mandarin languages within Taiwan.