Landlord hunts for motorbike-riding lioness' bones

George "Tornado" Smith, famous for bringing the "Wall of Death" to Suffolk from America, trained his lioness to ride on a motorcycle around the attraction

A pub landlord wants to hunt for the remains of a motorbike-riding lioness that was buried at the venue in the 20th Century.

Howard Watts recently bought the White Hart in the village of Boxford in Suffolk.

The pub is famous for being the home of George "Tornado" Smith who popularised the motorcycle Wall of Death attraction from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Tornado Smith bought a lion cub and trained her to sit on the handlebars of his bike to perform in the stunt. She later died in an incident in her cage and was buried on pub grounds.

Mr Watts explained he fell in love with the White Hart and the story of Tornado Smith after he came to buy his father's old garage nearby in 2001.

He became adamant he wanted to buy the pub eventually and recently, when it came up for sale, he jumped on the opportunity.

"He's a local hero really," Mr Watts said. "He brought over the Wall of Death from America and it was the first time it was seen here.

"It's a wooden cylinder where motorbikes start at the base of the cylinder and as they go around, the centrifugal forces play on the motorbike and the rider.

"The rider then ends up in the horizontal position going around the inside of the vertical cylinder.

"It's quite a dangerous thing to do. I've never done it myself but there are various stories and various people who did it."

Howard Watts planned to honour the White Hart's history and Tornado Smith

Tornado Smith took his Wall of Death to the Kursaal in Southend-on-Sea in Essex each summer while keeping the show at the pub in the winter.

At some point, he bought the lioness cub which he named Briton.

He trained her to sit on the handlebars of a motorcycle while it rode around the Wall of Death.

"It was very well trained, I don't know quite how he made it so placid," Mr Watts added. "It must have been amazing."

As Briton grew larger, she was trained to sit in the motorbike's sidecar.

Tornado Smith walked Briton around Boxford as well as training her to sit in a motorbike sidecar

Tornado Smith was said to walk Briton around the village on a chain as well as along the seafront in Southend.

However as World War Two neared, at the end of the 1930s, it became increasingly hard for Tornado Smith to find enough food for Briton.

She later died following an incident in one of the stables she was kept in.

"It was in a cage and it got its paw trapped and it went crazy," Mr Watts explained.

"There was so much noise and confusion, it had to be put to sleep.

"It was very unfortunate but the lion was buried at the front of the pub and is still there."

Yvonne Stage, Britain's first female rider of the Wall of Death, performed at the Kursaal as part of Tornado Smith's show in the 1960s

Claw marks could be seen in the stable and Mr Watts said he believed Briton's remains were buried in one of two locations in the pub's grounds.

"Originally there was a gravestone for the lion with some very nice wording which I have got and I want to find the bones of the lion and put the grave back because it's part of the history of this amazing building," he said.

In the 1960s, Tornado Smith and his wife embarked on a trip to South Africa and he decided to stay. He died out there in 1971.

Mr Watts believed Briton was buried in one of two places outside the White Hart pub

Mr Watts said he had started on improvement works at the pub and even named the bar Briton's Bar in honour of the lioness.

Throughout the pub there are pictures of Tornado Smith and Briton.