We sat down with the Yorkshire society

At their last social, everybody got a free bottle of wine


At least two-thirds of Newcastle University students are from God’s own county, and now, fresh for 2015, there’s a society to represent them all – flatcaps optional.

The Tab interviewed its committee: Will Harrison (Treasurer); Lucy Snowden (Secretary) and Jez Lowe (President) to see what it’s all about and separate the Yorkshire teas from the Yorkshire puddings.

Dream team – Jez Lowe (left), Lucy Snowden (middle) and Will Harrison (right).

Jez is a patriotic Yorkshireman and, on a night out, is always the one to start the YORKSHIRE chant. His drink of choice is spiced rum and coke with a slice of lime, and he’s from the motherland – the city of York itself.

Will is passionate about pizza kebabs lavished in garlic sauce after a night out, and a keen drinker of £3 Tesco Spanish wine (which he proudly declared he can easily drink two of at pres).

Lucy is in charge of keeping Will and Jez in line – she’ll drink whatever she can get her hands on and is from East Yorkshire.

How many members does Yorkshire society have?

Jez: There are currently 34 members including us three, while membership is £5. We wanted it to be £3 but the Union sets the minimum membership at £5 so regretfully we had to go with that.

How did Yorkshire society come about?

Jez: We’re all friends and we just realised that we’re all also from Yorkshire. We identified that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people at this university who are from there and we saw a gap in the market.

Yorkshire Tea or Yorkshire pudding?

Jez: Yorkshire pudding. With gravy, lots of gravy.

Lucy: Yorkshire pudding with a full roast.

Will: Yorkshire pudding because they’ll always be more brands of tea, but they’ll never be other Yorkshire puddings….

Arctic Monkeys or Kaiser Chiefs?

Lucy: Arctic Monkeys. They’re just the Arctics, they’re better and there’s no two ways about it.

Corrine Bailey Rae or Mel B?

Jez: Will and I love a bit of Corrine, she’s on the Yorkshire Society party playlist (alongside Kaiser Chiefs and Arctics).

Yorkshire Terriers or Rugby?

Jez: Well Lucy and Will love rugby but I think I’d rather wrestle my dogs, so I’ll go with Yorkshire Terriers.

Leeds or Sheffield?

Jez: Me and Lucy haven’t been out in Sheff before… we sort of live around Leeds, but I think Leeds is generally nicer in my opinion

What do socials usually consist of?

At their last social, each member of the society got a free bottle of wine. They had a buffet at Scalinis in Jesmond (next to Osbornes) – there was a Yorkshire Trivia quiz which included a word association game:

Lucy: Basically we showed them pictures which, when put together, described a Yorkshire landmark – so a humming bird + a bridge = the Humber Bridge.

Humming bird + a bridge = Humber Bridge

Jez: After the quiz we went to Soho and got trashed.

Jez: Regarding future socials – there’s going to be a Christmas jumper-themed social on Monday 14th December for members; we’ll be going ice skating, there’ll be free hot chocolate before we go for a few drinks in Jesmond and then Club Trop. We’re also we’re planning some socials for next year; hoping to do a fancy dress party (this is where Lucy interrupted and said she hoped to go dressed a Yorkshire pudding).

Will: We also want to do a social which is fuelled exclusively by alcohol from Yorkshire – a lot of good gins come from Yorkshire, and ginger beer. We could even have frozen Yorkshire puddings as shot glasses.

Will: We might also do a trip to a 20/20 cricket match at Headingley, and a night out in Leeds afterwards.

Do you have to be from Yorkshire to join the society?

Jez: Nah, we’re an equal opportunities society. To be honest, we just wanna get pissed – we don’t mind where people are from.

“we just wanna get pissed we don’t mind where people are from”

If you’re from Yorkshire, or anywhere else, and want to join the society, click here.