Site Status Update Feb 2010- Site is still active and updating every week. Cost of membership is $24.95 USD for 30 days.
Northern Spanking - a third "mini" guest review By Isambard posted 12/12/08.
This mini-review is inspired by the basically very fair review by Fried Gold (05/12/08 to us, or 12/05/08 to our chums across the pond).
The site does, as Fried Gold says, employ the talents of some of the great names on the spanking scene. In addition to those mentioned by Fried Gold, we could add Dublin O'Brien, Amy Hunter, Abi Switch, Jadie Reece, Zena Stones and Niki Flynn. New talent is constantly added to the site. Updates are almost daily. So far in December, the site has updated every day except the 7th.
Fried Gold's criticism of slow speeds is fair. Another criticism which might be made is that the site only maintains zipped files for galleries for about a fortnight after they are uploaded. This means that for older galleries pics have to be downloaded individually.
However, this, I suggest, is a reason to disagree with Fried Gold's otherwise economically rational suggestion to take out the cheapest and shortest sub. I'm just about to renew for another 90 days to ensure access to the zipped files.
Another reason that I would urge you to subscribe to this very good site is that Paul and Lucy deserve our support. They have become "collateral damage" in the Max Mosley case. They were outed by a nasty, canting, moralising newspaper, and in consequence Paul was fired from his day job. The scene has gathered round in support, and some of the most recent material was produced by actresses donating their services free of charge to help them.
Northern Spanking is well worth a subscription.
UPDATE FROM ISAMBARD 2/27/09: Northern Spanking has moved to a new server, with the result that download speeds have been hugely improved. This chage ermoves what in my opinion at least was the only negative feature of this fine site.
Updated Review from guest reviewer Fried_Gold on 12/5/08
Northern Spanking has a massive collection of galleries and videos - and I do mean massive. It is a database of spanking erotica which has been steadily built up since June 2003. New members should look for it under the 'Galleries' tab, if, like me you had a little trouble finding it. The content could be arranged a little better, chronologically listed as it is via the Galleries link as one contiguous, vertically scrolling page. Northern would do well to break this up into several pages - one for each year perhaps.
Some, but by far not all, scenes are both filmed and photographed. When Northern only took static images of a scenario, well, obviously that's all you get. Which scenes are filmed and which merely photographed seems to be an entirely arbitrary choice on the part of Northern. It's a crying shame that some scenes weren't filmed, judging by their stills, since the static shots alone can be powerfully erotic. All the material is entirely original, and I speak as someone who has done the rounds of the most popular spanking paysites. The pictures are of a very high quality, as you'd expect in this age of digital photography. The video, too, is high def. You will need video playing software that can handle .mp4 Quicktime format media, mind you, although this is very easy to get hold of for free from the Apple website. The full-sized video clips rarely stray above 150MBs in size, which is just as well since the server the material is stored on seems a little on the slow side, speaking as someone used to full broadband speed.
I like caning scenes over others, ritualised in the best traditions of English corporal punishment. Skirts off, knickers down to ankles, and touching toes for a mute and obediently taken series of crisp strokes meted out at a measured, unrushed pace over several minutes. Northern caters for this, and similar, scenarios nicely. At the time of writing, I've got 30+ videos and photo shoots of immediate interest earmarked for download. Bear in mind that I picked these from a far greater ocean of scenes, all tailored to satisfy the many different tastes which a spanking site has to indulge. Fans of hand spanking are most handsomely catered for, since almost all the scenes start with a good dose of OTK to get things under way. The severity of the videos ranges from play spanking to moderately severe discipline. You won't find the ugly dark welts of Eastern Europe's spanking houses in here (thankfully, from my point of view) but you can tell the heavier of Northern's sessions are meant to hurt and be felt.
This is one of the best spanking paysites I've ever joined as far as content is concerned, which is all that really matters. In fact, it's slightly peculiar that I've taken so long to join Northern given how many inferior websites I've paid to join until now. Many of the actresses who have gravitated to Northern over the years are established scene players: girls who are both attractive and who are known to enjoy their work. Expect to see Sarah Collins, Leia Ann Woods, and Amellia Jane Rutherford in action, amongst many other female scene luminaries whom I am doing a great disservice in not mentioning. The doms - generally male - for their part seem to understand their side of the game better than usual too. It is a relief not to see the drearily abusive male 'dom' who often appears in Spanking Online's content, for instance. Judging by the posts left on the site's rudimentary message board, and by some of the comments left under the videos, the site staff seem friendly and eager to talk about their work.
Email links for those interested in getting involved in spanking themed parties run by Northern are available via the members-only area. Ostensibly, it's also possible to use email to contact the girls involved in the site, but I didn't explore this. Hopefully I've made it clear that the video and photo-still gallery alone more than justified my entry fee.
And that brings me nicely to my finishing note, regarding membership tarrif options. If you're planning to only join the site for thirty days - and this should be ample time to download all the material that takes your fancy - don't bother going for the "$29.95 for 30 days, non-recurring." You can just as easily go for the "$24.95 for 30 days, recurring @ $24.95," immediately cancel the recurring order with CCBill, and save yourself a cool $5.
Reviewed on 11/05/05 by John O'Connell
I've come across this site on several occasions, but for some reason never had the desire to purchase a membership and review the contents. That is until now. I came across it again, merely by coincidence, and figured what the hell. I was surprised to find a members area packed with videos, photos, and stories that are updated twice a week. At first glance I had cast aside this site, feeling it to be nothing more than another faint attempt at providing the spanking community with a feeble website with the interest of making a fast buck in mind. Not so after all.
The first section is called "News" and as the name would imply, gives you the latest news and updates for the site. It's actually a bit more informative than I would have expected, even giving insights on other websites from time to time that the owners feel are worth a look. The "Galleries" section is where one would find the "meat and potatoes" of the page. Here are where the photos and video clips are found. The thing that kind of struck me odd about this set up is the way they list their material. It's all done by date, so if a storyline say has 3 parts to it, you may have to scan back through several updates to find the other segments. That and they only use a narrow column down the middle of the page to list their material, leaving a long scroll through the list with a large amount of open space on either side of the list. Not really a huge deal, I just thought it was rather strange. Each photo segment features roughly 50 photos, which are all thumbmailed for ease of use and loading. At the top of a page, a paragraph explains what the story line is about. Many of the story lines are spread out over several updates, so many times you have over 100 photos for a particular segment, even if they are not always available at the same time. Individual photos have a resolution of 800X600 and are of a good and clear quality. While not all photo scenes have a video clip to accompany them, many do. The clips are in Windows Media Format, have a screen size of 384X288, and a bit rate of 512 kbps. The quality of the clips are good with clear images and a smooth frame rate. Each clip varies in length, but generally runs around 10 minutes. The thing that impressed me was the size of the archive. I didn't realize how large this site was until I started looking through the content. The archive dates back to 2003 and will keep you busy for many hours looking through the various photos and clips.
The "Stories" area is a compilation of short stories written by the website staff, models, and members. A subscriber to the site is free to submit their story to the webmaster for publication within the member area. There is a large amount of stories in the member area at the time of this writing, so if spanking stories is something you enjoy, then this certainly will keep you entertained for hours. "The Girls" section offers a list of every model that is featured on the site. You can click on each models name, which will bring you to a separate page which will give you that persons bio, along with a link to an interview (not available with all models) and a list of every gallery that the model is featured on in this site. The nice part, is the list is hyperlinked, so all you have to do is click on the set name and you'll be brought to those photos or video clips. You can even email the models if you so desire. The models themselves are an interesting mix of women. Some young, some older. Some very skinny, some...well not so skinny. There are models you've seen on other sites before. And there are models that are new and exclusive to this site alone. 31 models in total with more being promised for the future. The last section of the site is called "Chat". It's kind of like a message board. Not really well organized, but a nice way to chat with other members and some of the site staff.
In closing I have to say Northern Spanking was a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting such a vast archive with a wide range and variety of scenes and models. With models that are young and old, skinny and plump and scenarios that taunt the imagination, this site truly has something for everyone. The cost is $24.95 for a month and as I mentioned, the updates are done twice a week.