Loremen Podcast

A strait-laced reverend meets a surprisingly seductive ghost with the face of a pig. Who will win? The pig-faced phantom of Chelsea, of course! Christmas Pig has come early. The Loremen dig into the origins of the porcine spectre, and uncover what might be one of Britain’s earliest urban legends. If you believe the tabloid press, cities were once awash with swinish visages and hoggish fizzogs. The...

Nick "Maso" Mason of The Weekly Planet and Mr Sunday Movies drops in from Melbourne for a chilling tale of ghosts, ghouls and... town planning. From "God's own country" (Australia) to "God's own county" (Yorkshire), we visit the haunted building site that was to become the infamous Stocksbridge bypass. Since the 1980s, this stretch of road has been associated with a ghostly hooded monk. Has he got...

Alasdair tells James the tale of a ghostly pedlar with no head... and no body! The Loremen journey to the lowlands of Scotland and encounter some Nithsdale ne'er-do-wells. Join us! Meet the pranksters of Sanquhar and Kryten the android's Scottish ancestor. Walk the lonely road to Littlemark Farm. (Oh, hi little Mark!) Marvel at the girthy trees and... beware the murderous Mary Graham. (No Marks we...

Bring a sandwich, grab an iron horseshoe and don't be a Greedy Jack because we are going fairy finding! James returns to Oxfordshire's Rollright Stones for some genuine fairy stories. Learn real-world strategies that YOU can use to avoid falling foul of the fae folk. Don't follow the corpse lights, abstain from shooting at your neighbour's trees and steer clear of making assumption about bakers. P...

James tells Alasdair the spooky story of a poltergeist in Dorset*. All your polterguy classics are in play here: scratching sounds, flying objects and a young girl with a talent for throwing things while no one is looking. Prepare yourself for strange happenings in a Durweston semi, witnessed by a gamekeeper whose perception of time and space is all slantwise. Let's be honest, this episode gets a...

The Loremen travel to the North Country and meet the Trash Hounds of Lancashire. No, not the live lorefolk audience. We're talking tales of headless dogs, skeletal huntsmen and be-buttocked pipers. This is another episode from our "Sold Out" "National" "Tour". James brings stories of boggarts and barghests and Alasdair presents three northern eccentrics. And we briefly hop across the border to the...

This episode was recorded live (or at least undead) in West Norwood Cemetery, in front of a sold-out crowd. The brave lorefolk were chilled, literally and figuratively, by tales of subterranean mystery and otherworldly encounters. James told the story of an eccentric English aristocrat who took to burrowing like a badger, while Alasdair hopped aboard London's defunct Necropolis Railway. And the cr...

The Loremen were LIVE at the QED festival in Manchester and we were joined by Deputy Loreperson Hayley Stevens. Sceptical listeners might be familiar with the Hayley is a Ghost blog, all about ghosts that (spoiler warning) probably don't exist. In this episode, we meet roadside ghosts and road-adjacent spectres from across the UK (and beyond). Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? No, neither have...

A country walk always brings to mind certain maxims. "Stop and smell the roses," for one. "If a tree falls..." is another. But now there's a new one - "Beware the Crooker!" The boys are taken to a spooky Derbyshire riverside by historian and author Willow Winsham. You might feel a gnarly wooden finger tingling your spine in this episode. But James and Alasdair find time to ask the big questions. W...

Deputy Loreperson Icy Sedgwick (Fabulous Folklore with Icy) joins James and Alasdair, and she brings with her the stories of a Geordie graverobber and a Mackem resurrection man. It's Newcastle vs Sunderland, and the bones of the dead do not rest easy in this Tyne-Wear derby. Plus the Loreboys come up with several new business ideas. Anyone for glow-in-the-dark coffins? Come see the Loreboys LIVE i...

The terrifying tale of the Grey Hitchhiker (or the Gray Hitcher, for Americans) comes from that spooky road, The Notorious A38. Over several decades, drivers have made the mistake of stopping for a hitchhiker who does not obey the laws of hitchhiking (or nature). If you're driving between Tiverton and Taunton, you might see the Grey Hitchhiker. If you've reached Wrangway, you're going the wrong wa...

The Loremen encounter what might be the biggest ghost in the history of the podcast. We're talking about a house that is a ghost. (Pretty big, right?) James takes Alasdair to the South West of England to view a property that's just come on the market and could vanish at any moment. Could this phantom maison be an echo of The Anarchy from the reign of King Stephen? Or do lone walkers on the moor go...

The boys are back, with yet more tales of Moreton lore! This time James visits South Moreton in Oxfordshire, for the outrageous story of a faux-poltergeist (fauxtergeist?). But don't fret, folklore fans - the village of South Moreton boasts enough "real" ghosts to spook the horses. Plus, a deadly locomotive and a very misleading prophecy. Come see the Loreboys LIVE in spooky West Norwood Cemetery...

Who's that, beckoning to you from the mouth of a weird looking cave? Why it's Alasdair Beckett-King of course! Join him and James Shakeshaft, and enter a subterranean labyrinth hidden beneath a leafy London borough. In 1907, The Illustrated London News called it The Great Chislehurst Cave Mystery: 22 miles of hand-carved tunnels, with stories of smugglers, druids, and rock and roll legends. Come f...

We return to the Tower of London and make a last ditch attempt to find John Barkstead's lost treasure. Meet Mr Quarrell (the treasure hunter) and Major Pogson (the big daddy of British dowsing). The year is 1957: will the traitor's horde finally be unearthed? No, of course not. But James will tell a fun story about the Ceremony of the Keys. Come see the Loreboys LIVE in spooky West Norwood Cemeter...

What connects a traitor, a Sandwich and a mushroom farmer from Kent? It's the lost treasure of 'Invisible' John Barkstead, which is buried somewhere underneath the Tower of London. Although there are those who say ... it isn't. In Part 1 of this LIVE episode, we meet a regicidal bum bailiff, Alasdair unearths the TRUTH™ about the death of Oliver Cromwell and James is ravin' about ravens. Come see...

James talks Alasdair through the case of Anne Gunter's demonic possession... or was it all an elaborate hoax with lashings of wee wee? It's time for more Moreton! We're not talking Eleanor Morton, here. And We're not talking Moreton-in-Marsh either. This week's tale comes from North Moreton, and from from Mike White's book The Veiled Vale: Strange Tales from South Oxfordshire. Join us for this 17t...

Saints alive! Amy Jeffs returns to the pod, and she's brought a bunch of kooky saints with her. We're talking adorable otters, vengeful ghosts and a guy with a load of forks in his beard. (Maybe...) An alternative telling of St Edmund's legend (and many more) can be found in Amy's upcoming book: Saints: A new legendary of heroes, humans and magic. Come see us LIVE in spooky West Norwood Cemetery o...

Athena Kugblenu returns to the pod, for a journey through Enfield: the Croydon of North London and home to one of the world's most famous polterguys. But how is this London borough connected to a three-legged ape in Illinois? What kind of beast appears on the Enfield coat of arms? And is The Conjuring 2 a good film?* These, dear listener, are the Enfield mysteries. Athena's new book History's Most...

Pssst! It's mid-August Holidays Bonus Episode Bonanza time! Enjoy this bundle of bonus material from our Xmas Pig episodes. Featuring: Sunil Patel BB Miller Nick Mason and... Danny Robins You can get more bonus bits at patreon.com/loremenpod Join... Us... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Alasdair and James in a hot air balloon of the mind and gently float over the actual rolling hills of the cotswolds / Vale of the White Horse area. Quiet, peaceful, serene - wait what on earth is that on the side of that hill? Is it a horse? Is it?? Really? Have a look at the graphic for this ep - Have you seen a horse before? This episode was edited by Joseph Burrows - Audio Editor. Come see...

Eleanor Morton returns, with the remarkable tale of an Edinburgh haunting - and a school trip to the site of the nightmare! These are the legends of Mary King's Close, an underground street with more supernatural activity than you can shake a disembodied arm at. Eleanor has a new book out on August 15th, and an upcoming Edinburgh Festival Fringe show all about ghosts. Plus, we decide once and for...

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This episode was edited by Joseph Burrows - Audio Editor. Come see us LIVE Again! https://www.angelcomedy.co.uk/event-detail/loremen-live-again-18th-aug-the-bill-murray-london-tickets-202408181730/ LoreBoys nether say die! Support the Loremen here (and get stuff): patreon.com/loremenpod ko-fi.com/loremen Check the sweet, sweet merch here... https://www.teepublic.com/stores/loremen-podcast?ref_id=2...

James takes Alasdair to the spooky manor house at Sandford Orcas (a village not some cetacea) and this place is simply brimming with ghosts! From Ghosts in the South West by James Turner, this is a tale of loads of ghosts and one very macabre way of not getting blamed for farts! Follow along here... https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147382139#/?channel=RES_BUY This episode was edited by Josep...