Loremen Podcast - Leicester's Sherlock Holmes - Minisode

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

What's going on 'ere then? It's the bite-sized tale of Leicester's first private detective, Francis "Tanky" Smith: the renowned master of disguise / owner of hats. Don't forget, you can see the Holmes and Watson of podcasting (James and Alasdair) LIVE at the Leicester Comedy Festival on Sunday 25th February 2024 (2024). Tickets here: comedy-festival.co.uk/events/loremen-live If you can't make it in person, then subscribe to our YouTube to get notified for the LiveStream: www.youtube.com/loremenpodcast 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=24631 @loremenpod youtube.com/loremenpodcast www.instagram.com/loremenpod www.facebook.com/loremenpod

Psst. James. Yes? It's a mini-sode. Mini-sode? Now, some people don't listen to them, but I think they're actually quite good quality. They're great.

Some of our best stories are delivered in mini-sode form. I bet the same people that don't listen to them are the same people that don't like the scores. How little do they know? The scores are the best bit, sometimes. I like the scores. That's where things really kick off. Exactly.

Well, James, in this minisode, I would like to talk to you about a local Leicester legend. Oh, why Leicester? Interesting question, glad you asked. You and I are on our way there this very Sunday for the Leicester Comedy Festival. Yes. For a lore live. A live lore. A live lore. Are on our way there this very Sunday for the Leicester Comedy Festival. Yes.

For a lore live. A live lore. A live lore. How are ticket sales doing, by the way? Just between you and me. Oh, we could always sell more. We could sell more, could we? Well, in that case, I hope we do. We're on at 2.30 at the Big Difference, by the way.

2.30 at the Big Difference. That's easily manageable on a Sunday. The 25th of February, 2024. 2024. Oh, I'm not used to saying the fall no but in advance of that let's get a little taste for leicester as a place yes please james shakeshaft alice becker king if you were to walk down l's i think the a6 oh you might find 32 stony eyes looking up on you how could that happen what kind of situation would you be in there how could you anger 16 people like that or 32 pirates or 32 pirates't know, probably a misplaced comment on Twitter. Yeah, you might have done one of your famous witty remarks

that anger pirates and PE teachers alike. I think you might just be standing in front of a building that's known locally as Top Hat Terrace. Top Hat Terrace? Top Hat Terrace. Top Hat Terrace? Top Hat Terrace. Nice. And I believe I have sent you a reference image of the 16 stony heads that might be looking down on you because Top Hat Terrace has 16, not just faces, but heads carved into it. Yeah.

All of them wearing, not all Top Hats, a variety of hats. Yeah. The ones that- Des describe what you're seeing james paint a picture with your words well i'm seeing like head and a bust type statue that you see on the same side of a building a bust yes quite and that's all in standard stone color however each one of them busts has a top hat on it, but it doesn't look like a stone top hat. It looks like an actual top hat because it's black. It really contrasts with the rest of the...

It's been very nicely... I think it's painted... It looks like a navy blue to me, but yeah, the hat has been painted. Oh, so it's not that someone's gone around putting actual hats on these busts? Oh, yes. You thought it was like a traffic cone situation.

Yeah. No, the hats are, I think, also part of the carving, but they've been painted, I think, in 1987. I think they were renovated. There's one that looks like a rum pole of the Bailey in a sort of a sailor's cap. There's a Donald Trump with half a nose. How does he smell? Yes, I don't know what's happened to the nose. And there's one that looks like Gandalf from Harry Potter.

Yeah. That's one for the nerds. A little bit pop culture icon Gandalf from Harold Potter. Some of the ones that aren't in top hats look like they've had top hats that have just been sort of squished down by like a giant that's trying to play real life Guess Who. Like if you've seen any of the videos I do online

where I have to improvise a costume out of a hat that's been in a previous video, just sort of at a different angle to try and be a different character. Would it shock you, James, to realise that all 16 faces carved into Top Hat Terrace are in fact the same man? What?

Yeah. But he has different facial hair. He has different facial hair. He has different hats. He has roughly the same underlying bone structure and face. He is.... Francis Tanky Smith. Tanky's his nickname. It's an inverted comma.

Tanky Smith? Yes. He's not, as you might have hoped, a socialist. He's not a communist. He's not a Stalinist. No. But Tanky is his nickname. Is this the sort of old version of like a sketch comedian, like you say?

Like, is each one of these a statue rendering of one of his famous characters? Sort of. Oh, yeah. Sort of. But the punchline was him whacking you on the top of your head with his stick because he was a copper. Oh, was he? Not just a copper.

He was Leicester's first private detective, according to a blue plaque on Top Hat Terrace. THT? Supposedly, the theory is he would tank you on the top of your head with his stick. And that was just one of the hilarious bits of policing he was known for. Oh, so that's why he's called Tanky. Tanky, yeah, because he was always hitting people. My two sources here are the BBC's Leicester Legacy's website

and the book Public Sculpture of Leicestershire and Rutland by Terry Kavanagh. Nice one, Tez. Now, according to Leicester Legacies, in 1836, the Leicester Corporation, I'm quoting here, decided to create the city's first police force because of general lawlessness. It was described as the Wild west of leicestershire and uh two of the early coppers were francis tanky smith and his partner tommy haynes whose nickname was black tommy wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute yes james is tanky a scammer is? Is he pulling in two paychecks? Because how do we know that they were different people? Because I'm seeing that Tanky's got the ability to play up to 16 different people.

The images I've sent it to you looks like when actors have different headshots. Yeah. All their range. What was the name of his partner? Tommy Haynes. Tommy Haynes. And what was his nickname? It was Black Tommy. Black Tommy.

Is that because he would only ever be in shadows and never allowed anyone to have a proper look at his face? Perhaps. He's standing quite far away. Apparently, he used his talent for disguise to get in with criminal gangs, which sounds very... If you Google his name,

people say he was described as Leicester's Sherlock Holmes, or apparently a possible inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, though I can't find any solid evidence for that. But here's what BBC Leicester Legacy says. in stone on Top Hat Terrace on London Road show the famous local detective as an array of bizarre undercover characters, including a bishop, a Quaker, and two jockeys. Now, what I would say to you is, apparently he was quite a tall guy. How many jockey characters do you need to infiltrate criminal gangs? He's a six-foot-tall jockey.

Also, bone structure-wise. Yeah. It doesn't, I just don't understand how you could convince someone that you were one jockey, nevermind two separate jockeys. Two separate jockey.

Did it say that he was successful at being a jockey? He was extremely successful. He was very convincing. Was he specifically the jockey? It doesn't say how dressing up as two jockeys helped him catch criminals, perhaps at the races. I don't know. He had one very famous case, but it was not as a copper. It was as a private detective. Was it infiltrating a wizarding school?

Before I tell you about his famous case, I should should tell you what terry cavanaugh has to say about the building so uh apparently the building was designed by his his son james francis smith great name great start to the name and he quote had the spandrels above the arched windows and doors of the london road frontage decorated with 16 carved heads portraying his father wearing various hats wigs and beards whereas the 14 14 first floor heads show Tanky Smith in some of his many disguises, the two ground floor heads show him wearing the regulation top hat of the police force at the time. And it is this that gives the terrace its more familiar name, Top Hat Terrace. That's what Terry Kavanagh has to say in public sculpture of Leicestershire and Rutland.

That's what Terry Kavanagh has to say in Public Sculpture of Leicestershire and Rutland. But his big case came when the High Sheriff, James Beaumont Winstanley, disappeared in 1862. He disappeared? He disappeared. Winstanley lived in the much haunted Brownstone Hall, or Braunstone Hall, I'm not sure how to pronounce that, these days called Winstanley Hall, which I won't go into because it seems to have tons of ghosts and it may appear on the pod later. Yes, I've heard of that place. He vanished.

Or more like by sheriff. Well, he was found dead. So I hope you find that funny, James, sneering about a man's death i to be honest all of our podcast is laughing about people who are dead that is a lot of the podcast um uh terry kavanagh describes how his fame and fortune were made almost immediately after his retirement although uh he retired in 1864 and the guy went missing in 1862 so if that that's the case, he didn't leap onto this case immediately. He let the trail go a little bit cold. I'm not sure about the timeline.

He tracked down James Beaumont Winstanley to Koblenz in Germany, James. Oh. He'd gone to Koblenz in Germany. He'd fallen off a boat and drowned. And Winstanley tracked him down, eventually found the body and was able to identify it as, very sadly, the missing James Beaumont Winstanley. But with the £1,000 reward, cha-ching, he was able to build top hat terrace and I thought

that must be good no carving he could have his he could wear stone hats from this point onwards he was in solid gold hats and I was wondering

how much a thousand pounds was in those days that he could build this massive it's like if you look at it on Google Maps it's like four houses wide

and it's it's like four houses wide. And it's over £100,000 in modern money, which is really not... It's quite a lot of money, but it's not anywhere near enough to build a gigantic mansion in Leicester. I looked, you could get a small studio flat and maybe carve the faces into the walls on the inside. Just get a caricaturist to do you, maybe.

Yeah. Yes. Get one of the caricaturists on the, you could commission loads of fun caricatures of yourself. Yes. From someone in the markets fun caricatures of yourself. Yes. From someone in the markets. As Donald Trump without a nose.

How does he smell? And Gandalf from Harry Potter. Two different jockeys. Is that still a job? Gandalf from Harry Potter. I think it's open. I remember in the 90s, the marketplace, there was always someone selling hand pencil drawings,

quite realistic pencil drawings of David and Victoria Beckham. Oh, of Brad Pitt. Yeah. Or Brad Pitt. You're Brad Pitt's. You're Beckham's. Is that industry still going? I think that was literally one of the first ones to go from AI.

Oh, dear. Yeah. So it's not all bad. Yeah, so it's not all bad. So that, very briefly, is a potted history of the Sherlock Holmes of Leicester. Yeah. Francis Tanky Smith. Watch out, he could be anywhere, but he's always wearing a hat.

The Sherlock Holmes slash John Coleshaw. Yes. Slash Rory Bremner, for the older audience. Yes. Slash someone else. The John Sessions of Leicester. Sessions slash Dagar. The Google search has let me down there on Impressionist.

It started well. It's basically your choice. You get your lozenges. It's Rory your choice, you know, you get your lozenges. It's Rory Bremner or Claude Monet. Choose now. Bremner or Monet. Which do you choose, sire? Alistair McGowan barely gets a look in. Really?

Which is not fair. That's not fair at all. No. No, actually, no, that's pretty evenly between Coleshaw McGowan and Deborah Stevenson. She's a very good impressionist. Ironically, she's getting a write-up in the Daily Echo. Oh, because of impressions.

The original impressionist, the Echo. Yes, nature's impressionist. Yes. That's like the cave is like, this is you. Hello. Echo. Hello. I don't sound like that.

Oh, but I wonder what he'd sound like if he was in a cave. Well, there you go, listener. That is just a little amuse-bouche. I hope your bouches are amused. Yeah. And if you want the rest of you amused. Your entire body's amused, hopefully. Yes.

Get yourself to Leicester on the 25th of February, 2024. 2024. I mean, only if you live anywhere in the region. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't travel too far. live anywhere in the region. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't travel too far. Be realistic. Be reasonable. If you can't do any of that, you should probably look up our YouTube channel

because I'm going to try and make it live stream again. Ooh. My fingers are crossed for the Wi-Fi. And bonus points for anyone who arrives wearing 16 different hats. Yes. Is this some sort of stealth marketing to get someone to buy 16 tickets? Yes.

Every different hat needs a different ticket. We're going to sell this baby out. Yeah, you're like Bono. You're like Bono that time. Do you know the story of Bono that time? Oh, when he had his hat flown on an aeroplane? Yes. Imagine how much it would be for old Tanki

if aeroplanes existed. Yeah, he probably couldn't fly to Germany. It's not practical with all those hats. Did you hear about that man who drowned? Yeah, two jockeys came around asking about it. One jockey came in, asked about him, then went out, and then another jockey came in. Another, the exact same height.

A tall jockey came in and asked. Another massive jockey. A really gigantic English jockey came in and asked. Another massive jockey. Gigantic English jockey came in and asked a question. It's a big jockey. So, yeah, I think that, I mean, technically this is an advert, but boy, what an advert. This is one of the good ones. It's like the texture we've put into this.

It's like the Budweiser What's Up advert. It's actually good. It's good. Yeah, it is good. I'd feel a bit more confident if we didn't have to end by saying it is good. It is good, actually. That was fine. If this isn't enough content for you, you can, of course, get more content

by joining us on patreon.com forward slash lawmen pod. He's not stacking an advert on top of an advert, is he? I'm putting a plug in this advert, or an advert in this plug. Wow. And you get access to the Discord. What if the newly added adverts play at the start of this advert with an advert on top of it? What's happened to you, man? Oh my god.

Right then, I'd better get researching. Get to work, James.