Loremen Podcast

A little Loreman met a Pie Man, going to the fair. Said little Loreman to the Pie Man, "Is Datchworth Green near Ware?" And the Pie Man said, "Yeah, but it's closer to Knebworth." James takes Alasdair to the many-spectred village of Datchworth in Hertfordshire - a hamlet terrorised by both spirits of the dead and a flesh-and-blood highwayman. From poor farmer Pennyfather, to Oakenvalley Bottom and...

Alasdair bundles James into a red telephone box and dials S for snail. There are ghosts in the wire. There are signals from the other side. The Wichita lineman is still on the LIIIIINE. The year 1850 saw the bizarre tale of the "snail telegraph" play out in Paris: an eccentric inventor, a gullible journalist and forty-eight alphabetic-sympathetic snails. Magical molluscs? Or simply the work of a F...

Comedian Yuriko Kotani returns to the pod to tangle with a shapeshifting trickster. The tanuki (or racoon dog) is both a real animal and a very cheeky yōkai. (That’s a spirit in Japanese folklore, but you probably knew that.) This furry little fellow is famed for his enormous… that is to say his massive… well… he’s got a lot of chutzpah, let’s leave it at that. But who’s that by the side of the ro...

This four poster bed was built for royalty, but take our word for it - it's a lot more than king-sized. This bed is big. You might ask, how many butchers (plus partners) can you fit in it? The answers will surprise you! James gives Alasdair the old 'come to bed' podcast tale. About a big bed. The biggest bed. Bigger than you're thinking of. Oh, and bad news: it's haunted. Loreboys nether say die!...

The Loremen are joined by Tom Mayhew (from Radio 4's Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum) for one of our stinkiest, sexiest episodes to date. Following in the footsteps of Victorian journo Henry Mayhew (no relation), the boys meet the Battersea rat-charmer Jack Black: mole destroyer by royal appointment. We gawp at the Original Happy Family™, we follow "toshers" into the sewers of Bermondsey and we wince a...

Man vs Cow! The epic battle continues. James tells the romantic tale of the English knight Guy of Warwick, who (rather unromantically) killed a massive cow. The cow was very, very angry and bigger than a van, so don't judge Guy too harshly. He also killed a handful of dragons, but we skip over them. It was all a witch's fault, really. Listen carefully, and you will learn about a rude flower, what...

The Loreboys are still in the county of Cornwall when they encounter a remarkably haunted inn named The Dolphin. And, steel yourself listener, because Alasdair not only visited the titular pub, he actually received a message from the other side. With extracts from Haunted Inns by Marc Alexander and Ghosts of Cornwall by (his eminence) Peter Underwood, there's a fair few chills for your spine. (Not...

Ghostbusters! In Cornwall! That's very much the premise. Alasdair returns from England's westernmost peninsula with a slew of tales about Cornish ghost-layers, spirit-quellers, exorcists and general demon-botherers. PLUS a bonus excerpt from James's appearance on The Quantum Mechanics https://t.co/kjWayikqVO, when the team went to look at a standing stone, to see if it moved. (It didn't.) Also ava...

James takes Alasdair way out west; as far west as you can go in the UK without getting wet. We're talking about the wall of corn itself: Cornwall, and the tale of a peculiar vicar who managed to alienate his entire community. Basically, this episode is like Wild Wild West, but with two Kevin Klines and no Will Smiths. Guest starring: a pack of dogs; a 14th Century heretic and some lovely, lovely a...

James dazzles Alasdair with a selection of grifts, scams and swindles from Edo period Japan. Marvel at the adventures of the legendary Hikoichi, featuring a bucket of fish-guts, a red-faced demon (literally and figuratively) and pub-based nudity. This marks the Loremen's long-awaited return to the shed / garret livestream format. If you want to witness it all with moving images (and an hour of ext...

This is a biscuit-heavy minisode, in service of our upcoming LIVESTREAM. Join... Us... on the 12th June 2023 (2023) at 8:30pm BST (bst) on youtube.com/loremenpodcast for tales from James Shakeshaft's trip to Japan!  It will be fun! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Loreboys are off galivanting! Well, Alasdair is on tour in the UK and James is on a family holiday in Japan. (Friend of the podcast: Japan.) So, think of this episode as a horror anthology. If you're afraid of talking cats and hairy trees, that is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In April 2022, the Loremen recorded their shortest episode ever: Dame Creswyke’s Spectre. Did you think one haunted hotel was all Moreton-in-Marsh had to offer? Well, you were wrong! That sleepy Cotswold town on the Fosse Way is a veritable horn of plenty. Plenty of ghosts, that is. Expect spectres, mists, coughs, sensations and a bevy of airborne phenomena. Loreboys nether say die! Check the swee...

England's best "true" vampire story springs from the pages of the prolific hob-nobber Augustus Hare. Bleh! Alasdair tells James a blood-soaked Cumbrian legend, gleaned from Hare's (ludicrously long) autobiography. Sorry, autobiographies. The walrus-faced Hare had a gift for extracting dubious ghost stories from minor aristocrats. And tales seldom come taller than that of the Croglin Grange vampire...

Could this be our most respectful episode yet? Inspired by the crowning of Charles 3: Return of the King, the Loremen recap the entire King Chuck franchise. James recounts Charles I's ghostly premonitions and the much more boring Charles II is briefly mentioned as well. In devastating news, James discovers that he was mispronouncing the word "chrism" throughout the entire coronation. Like the hist...

Duchess, Poisoner, Spectre, Spy. James and Alasdair leap back to the English Civil War and meet the two-timing royalist schemer Elizabeth Murray. Her Richmond home is haunted by stories of intrigue, betrayal and ghosts. And a little dog too. The gloomy pile that is Ham House was Elizabeth's lifelong passion. Some believe that she never left. Visit Ham and maybe you will hear the old duchess rappin...

Horace Walpole was the O.G. Goth (Original Goth Goth). He was an eccentric 18th Century writer, who transformed a modest cottage in Twickenham into a plaster and papier-mâche fantasy. Join James and Alasdair as we venture into the gloomsome, vaulted hallways of The Gothic. Sorry, Gothick. This episode features Strawberry Hill ghost stories from Patsy Sorenti and a chilling tale from the unwary pra...

James takes Alasdair on a tour of the 'summer lands' - Somerset - and the wee folk that dwell there. They live inside stones, beneath mounds and under at least one castle. (It's not there anymore, don't look for it.) We are talking fairies, faeries and indeed, the fae. You've got to be careful with these temperamental critters. They'll just as soon give you a golden nugget as turn into a cloud of...

In an old Tudor house near Marlborough there is a chamber that legends call the justice room. Evil-doers beware! The spirit that lingers in that old "Oaken Place" is determined to wring the life out of any villain that spends a night there alone. That is, if we are to believe the tale of a long-dead actor, an elderly maid and a still-living podcaster who went to mime school. (The last one is James...

The Denham Tracts might sound like the pamphlets of choice for James “Double Denim” Shakeshaft. In fact, they were the work of a County Durham folklorist with an ear for proverbs and an eye for the weird.   Does King Arthur sleep beneath the Castle of the Seven Shields? Do Hedgehogs engage in nocturnal milk-larceny? And if you live anywhere near Leeds, are you prepared for the Puddening? These que...

Brighton and Hove: quiet, peaceful, serene... that is until Shrove Tuesday comes round! The Loreboys discover that while Brightonians are a forward-thinking and open-minded bunch, they have real issues when it comes to one particular bird. (It's chickens. You guessed that.) This is a tale of Vikings and fowl play, and it may be our most controversial episode yet. James makes enemies of The Danes,...

Stoke your Brams and Bram your Stokers, because James and Alasdair are joined by Sacha Coward: escape room designer and author of the upcoming book Queer as Folklore. Taking us from Lilith to Lord Byron (stopping off at Tom Cruise for a layover), Sacha unearths the LGBTQ+ subtext of the Vampire. Sorry, Vampyre. Say it with a Y. We touch on some slightly more serious themes than our usual fare of d...

Did the Devil themself come to town on a cold February night in Devon and just sort of wander around? That's just one of the hypotheses put forward to explain the uncanny appearance of prints in the snow all across the county. Was it Old Nick? Or was it a gang of kangaroos? An acrobatic rodent? Or, like so many things in life, was it simply badgers?   Who knows? YOU DECIDE. We certainly don't. Lor...

The Loremen are joined by loveable Australian podman Nick "Maso" Mason of The Weekly Planet. Naturally, they take their new deputy straight to Northampton, home of comic book legend Alan "Alan" Moore. There, the loreboys attempt to dazzle Maso with two tales.  One is a little bit too stare-y and the other is a very naughty goose.  AND THATS JUST ALASDAIR AND JAMES hahahaha! Well, that just happene...

The Loremen return to the Leicester Comedy Festival, and James has brought a triptych of spine-tingling tales from the neighbouring county of Rutland. (Do look for it, it is there.) James's tales boast a credulous chemist, a spectral mist and an old man who liked sitting TOO much. Many thanks to the Lorefolk who turned out and giggled appreciatively. The whole affair was (incompetently) livestream...