How’s your Northern knowledge? With just a couple of days until 2022 draws to a close, let’s see how much you can recall about the year – and we’ll also test your general Northern trivia. No prizes, just a lovely feeling of smugness when you get them all right. (answers are at the bottom) 

  1. Barry Sheerman is Labour’s longest continuously serving MP and the oldest Labour MP in the current parliament. What is his constituency? 
  2. What is the meaning of ‘it’s like Blackpool illuminations in here’? 
  3. Which famous football player was, um, let go from Manchester United in November? 
  4. Where will Eurovision 2023 be held? 
  5. Where is the rapper Aitch from? 
  6. What Oasis song was the theme tune for the TV show, The Royle Family? 
  7. What is a stottie cake and which city can you buy it in?
  8. Who is the new Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Policing and Crime? 
  9. What is the name of the latest album by Sheffield band, Arctic Monkeys?
  10. Where was author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg born? (bonus point if you know where he was raised)
  11. What is the meaning of the scouse slang ‘devoed’? 
  12. Before emigrating to Australia in the late 1950s, where did the Bee Gees live? 
  13. Where was the world’s oldest (surviving) football club founded in 1857?
  14. Which famous Northern comic recently returned to the stage with a sell-out tour? 
  15. What are the main ingredients in a Manchester tart? 
  16. Which Northern city did M&S originate in? 
  17. Which station became the world’s first covered train station in 1850?
  18. The tallest and steepest rollercoaster in the world when it first opened, what year was the Pepsi Max Big One unveiled at Blackpool Pleasure Beach? 
  19. What Northern street was Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley based on?
  20. In what Northern city were boiled sweets invented?
  21. When Geordies say ‘divn’t bubble’, what do they mean?
  22. What is a ginnel?
  23. A new theatre opened in the North this year – the Shakespeare North Playhouse. Where is it based?
  24. Northcote is an award-winning Michelin Star restaurant and hotel. Where can you find it?
  25. What (in)famous Northern club was the subject of a BBC documentary in 2022 called The Club That Shook Britain?

 

The North

Answers 

  1. Huddersfield
  2. There are too many lights turned on
  3. Cristiano Ronaldo
  4. Liverpool
  5. Moston, Manchester
  6. Half the World Away
  7. A flat and round large bread roll originating in Newcastle (very tasty with ham and pease pudding)
  8. Kate Green
  9. The Car
  10. He was born in Carlisle and raised in Wigton, Cumbria
  11. Gutted
  12. Chorlton, Manchester
  13. Sheffield (Sheffield F.C.)
  14. Peter Kay
  15. Pastry, raspberry jam, custard, coconut flakes, maraschino cherries
  16. Leeds
  17. Newcastle Central Station
  18. May 28, 1994
  19. The Shambles in York
  20. Hull
  21. Don’t cry
  22. A narrow passage, usually between buildings and sometimes covered
  23. Prescot, Merseyside
  24. Langho, Lancashire (north of Blackburn)
  25. The Hacienda