YORKSHIREMEN are noted for their blunt speaking, down-to- earth manner.

And those admirable traits have helped a Huddersfield student capture a top award.

Part-time history PhD student Lewis Coates, himself a Yorkshireman, is one of the prizewinners in this year's Yorkshire Historical Society's Essay Prize competition.

He studies at the University of Huddersfield and has helped them make it four wins in a row in the contest.

Lewis, 39, completed both his BA and MA in History at the University and is now studying – part-time – towards his PhD.

Away from his studies, Lewis has a demanding job as a principal environmental health officer in Rotherham.

His essay, which considered the controversies surrounding the 1734 election in Yorkshire, was based on one of the chapters in his PhD thesis and was described by the judges as "a most admirable essay" and "a major contribution to Yorkshire history".

It centred on the Yorkshire electorate – "...volatile, stroppy and difficult to control..."

It's a trait mirrored by many famous Tykes - among them Harvey Smith, Fred Trueman, Geoffrey Boycott and Bernard Ingham - who have all courted controversy.

Lewis said: "The stroppiness of Yorkshire folk has left its mark throughout this nation's history and is as marked today as it ever was.

"The Yorkshire county electorate in the 18th century were notoriously independent and reluctant to be dominated by their social superiors' attempts to dictate politics."

The fame of the county's grittiness was such that even George II and the London press recognised Yorkshire's voters as the `voice of national opinion'.

There were also countless examples of the flagrant disregard that the voters, ranging from labourers to merchants, had for social niceties at election time.

Says Lewis: "In the Cloth Hall in Leeds, the merchants once left their stalls and forewent their profits – a significant sacrifice for a Yorkshireman even in those days – rather than listen to the rhetoric being spouted by the government candidate Sir Rowland Winn.

"Sheffield took a slightly different tack. The mob ran the government agent and native Sheffielder William Jessop MP beyond the town limits. In York, they greatly abused the government candidate Cholmley Turner.

"To carry the election in Yorkshire was a hard fought contest and more worthy of note than any other county in the country. Yorkshire stood out from the rest simply because Yorkshiremen could not be cajoled; rather the opposite, the Yorkshire electorate told Parliament who they wanted to represent `God's own county'.

He added: "The stroppiness of Yorkshire folk has left its mark throughout history, and is an historical lesson that politicians should be cautious for its relevance. It is as marked today as it ever was.

"Nations have risen and fallen, but the unique trademark of the `Tyke' remains the same."