BIGWIGS at Huddersfield University won’t forget St Patrick’s Day in a hurry.
For several of them spent part of the day soaking in a bath of cold mushy peas outside the Students’ Union building in the full glare of the public eye.
Students crowded round the bath, filled with 25kg of pungent peas, to take photographs and videos of the lecturers and top administrators bathing in the smelly brew on the eve of Comic Relief day.
Dr Rob Allan, of Applied Sciences, entertained spectators by eating a pork pie thrown from the audience while bathing in the pea mixture.
Research fellow Scott McLaughlin did a 360° roll in the sloppy green liquid to raise extra money for charity. From the bath he said: “Words cannot describe the absolute rankness of the experience – the texture, the cold, the voyeurism – but somebody had to do it!”
The stunt was sponsored and all proceeds will go to Kirkwood and Wakefield hospices.
Organiser Michelle McHugh, a first-year medical biology student from Ossett, had hoped originally to fill the bath with worms, but came up against health and safety regulations.
“Then we thought of beans,” she said. “In the end we decided on mushy peas as we wanted something green for St Patrick’s Day.”
The mushy peas were donated by the Barracuda Chip Shop in Ossett and the bath was loaned by Dewsbury’s Bathrooms for All.
Graham Leslie, former Town chairman and head of Galpharm Pharmaceuticals, pledged £1,000 to see the University’s Liz Town-Andrews, Director of Research and Enterprise, and Professor Andrew Ball, Pro Vice-Chancellor, taking a dip.
