Ey up lad, what makes us Tykes?

Sep 18 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SO WHAT MAKES US TYKES?

EY UP, yon lad from t’Uni is going to take a look at us Tykes!

Or, in other words, academia meets the world of flat caps, pork pies and decent beer.

A research student at the University of Huddersfield has been awarded a rare grant to investigate ‘Yorkshireness’.

Examiner music reviewer William Marshall has been awarded the prestigious postgraduate award from the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

William’s research – The Invention of Yorkshireness: Yorkshire cultural identities c. 1850 – 1914 – will explore the ways in which the regional identity of Yorkshire was constructed.

He said: “The late 19th century was a period of great cultural centralisation, due to the arrival of the railways and national newspapers and so forth, so in one sense the nation’s culture was increasingly London-dominated.

“At the same time, however, there were opposing forces of regional identities which were being constructed and reinforced, and I want to find out how that process happened in Yorkshire.”

A graduate of Huddersfield, William completed his bachelor’s degree in history in 2006, before going on to complete a masters in historical research at the University of Sheffield. His current research is a result of his strong interest in identities and the Yorkshire area.