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17 Jul 01 - 11:03 AM (#508597) Subject: Of snickets and ginnels From: Arnie When I was a kid in the West Riding of you know where, we called the passageway between two houses a snicket. In Yorkshire dialect books I've seen the same thing called a ginnel (maybe S.Yorks?. Now that I'm in Kent no-one knows what a snicket is, but they refer to it as a twitten (god knows where that originated!) It occurs to me that there must be a few more variations to describe an alleyway around parts I have not visited, like East Anglia and most of the rest of the world. Any offers?? |
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17 Jul 01 - 11:16 AM (#508610) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Drumshanty |
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17 Jul 01 - 11:18 AM (#508614) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: bill\sables In County Durham it was called a "Lonnen" |
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17 Jul 01 - 11:20 AM (#508617) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Drumshanty Sorry! 's been a long day. They are called 'closes' in Edinburgh and we call them that in Elgin too although I am sure there is another older name that I will have to look up. My da, on the other hand, says he's going 'up the entry'. He's from Belfast. Tracy |
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17 Jul 01 - 11:43 AM (#508645) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Steve Parkes 'Gulley' in parts of the Midlands ... in other parts. a gulley is the little hole in the ground where the water from the sink or the drainpipe goes. I never knew hoe to tell which part I was in, but it's OK as long as no-one asks directions! There's a 'ginnel' that runs down from Mellish Road to the Arboretum (I think) in Walsall. Steve |
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17 Jul 01 - 11:54 AM (#508658) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler When I were a nipper in Brummagem we called them "entries". RtS |
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17 Jul 01 - 11:57 AM (#508664) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Mountain Dog Narrow passageways between buildings are called "opes" in Cornwall. |
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17 Jul 01 - 01:35 PM (#508776) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Susie Where I live now in Cumbria we have a ginnel, but when I lived in Nottinghamshire, it was called a gennel (still with a hard "g"). I've always wondered whether the name is derived in some way from "tunnel". A "lonnin" here is just a narrow lane, ususally not suitable for vehicles and certainly not with a roof, which a ginnel always has - one of the houses on either side making use of the floor space above! We have swallows nesting in our ginnel every year - lovely, but they dive at us alarmingly every time we go through. Regrettably for them, we can't be discouraged as it's the only way to our back door! Susie |
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17 Jul 01 - 02:09 PM (#508819) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull tenfoot |
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17 Jul 01 - 02:11 PM (#508824) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: McGrath of Harlow In Oxford we called them Cracks. |
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17 Jul 01 - 03:22 PM (#508877) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Malcolm Douglas Gennel or Ginnel in South Yorkshire, as Arnie suggested; usually with a soft G. Sidney Oldall Addy (A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield, 1888) gave the word, mentioning that it appeared in Lancashire as ginnel, and around Leeds as ginnil, with a hard G; in that case it was "generally understood to mean a passage between a wall and a hedge, or between two walls". He also referred to Gin-Hoil, "a footpath in Dore with a wall on on each side and a post at the end. Probably the same as gennel... A[nglo] S[axon], gin, a gap, an opening." "Hoil" is "Hole", of course. |
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17 Jul 01 - 06:48 PM (#509063) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Penny S. They're twittens in Sussex, too. I think they have a rural origin as small tracks giving access to fields off the road, rather than the urban meanings in some of the above. Isn't there another word somewhere - I used to know quite a few of these words, all two syllable with a diminutive sound, collected as we holidayed around the country. Penny |
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17 Jul 01 - 06:53 PM (#509067) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Penny S. Vennels, I think, somewhere. Scotland? Penny |
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17 Jul 01 - 08:21 PM (#509138) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Snuffy We always called them ginnells (hard g) in cheshire, but here in Warwickshire (Alcester), a passage between two walls without a roof is called a 'tuery' |
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17 Jul 01 - 11:32 PM (#509241) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: RangerSteve G.B.Shaw was right: We are two nations divided by a common language. But thanks for this thread. If I ever get to the UK and have to ask directions, I'll have a slight idea what people are talking about. |
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18 Jul 01 - 03:38 AM (#509309) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Sooz ( at work ) Eightfoot, or twitchel in the area of Nottinghamshire where I grew up. |
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18 Jul 01 - 05:33 AM (#509340) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: IanC We have a Twitchell here in Ashwell, Herts. I don't think the terms are entirely mutually exclusive, though my Bradford relatives always seem to call them Snickets. Has anyone noted down Ullet for one of the Yorkshire versions of the term?
Cheers! |
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18 Jul 01 - 05:44 AM (#509344) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Gervase In Lowestoft the narrow alleys running from the High Street down to the shore are called Scores (from the Anglo Saxon scorean meaning 'to cut', I think) |
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18 Jul 01 - 06:14 AM (#509356) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Peter K (Fionn) Arnie, ginnel (hard G) was the word in my part of the West Riding: Leeds. Or Crossgates to be more precise. Maybe it depends on whether you call the gathering of combustibles for Bonfire Night "chumping" or "progging" - or even whether it's not Bonfire Night but Plot Neight. In my experience, five or ten miles could make all the difference. On the other hand, "lonnin" for farm lane, as mentioned by Suzie, seems to hold good all over Cumbria, or at least from Wetheral to Egremont. Though if we're reviving the Ridings, I should perhaps be saying Cumberland. Entries, Belfast style, are not quite the same thing as ginnels. In residential areas of Belfast an entry runs between two terraces of houses, at the rear of both, on to which backyards open (known as back streets in northern England, and actually named as such, as in the Liverpool song, Back Buchanan Street). In the city centre an entry is more likely to be a bustling alleyway, maybe containing a shop or two, or a bar (eg the Morning Star). A ginnel (in Crossgates, Leeds, at any rate) would typically be a pedestrian-only link between two roads, passing between a couple of houses and their gardens. No roof. |
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18 Jul 01 - 08:59 AM (#509457) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: A Wandering Minstrel In Newcastle the ones that run down to the Tyne are called Chares. "He cam oot the bottom of the chare eatin a brick ye knaa" |
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18 Jul 01 - 09:02 AM (#509460) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: KitKat I too remember them as 'entries'. I have heard that the Shropshire/Welsh border area word for them is 'entanies'. Presumably from the same root. |
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18 Jul 01 - 09:44 AM (#509491) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Ringer Twitchell in my native village in Nottinghamshire, but squitchell in the neighbouring village (whence hove my mother). Sooz: is "eightfoot" native to Notts, too? I've never heard that usage. Snuffy: how is "tuery" pronounced? (too-er-ie?) Is it related to "tuyere", the tapping hole in a steel furnace? |
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18 Jul 01 - 09:52 AM (#509502) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Geoff the Duck When I grew up in Bradford we had both snickets AND ginnels. I would say that the ginnel went between houses, as in Fionn's definition a couple of postings up. A snicket as I recall was longer and went somewhere. It was often the part of a footpath which was bordered on both sides by a hedge or fence, often a shortcut between one part of an estate to another. |
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18 Jul 01 - 04:36 PM (#509837) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Snuffy Bald Eagle - yes, 'too-er-ee' (or sometimes choo-er-ee). And going by Geoff the Duck's definitions, a tuery is really a snicket, but the end of it is often a ginnel. |
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18 Jul 01 - 05:05 PM (#509859) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Arnie Many thanks to all who replied. It really is comforting to know that despite 'estuary English' , BBC English and all the rest, dialect is still going strong....but for how much longer??? |
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18 Jul 01 - 06:03 PM (#509899) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Vectis Twitten down here in Sussex. Alley in South London. On the Island they were just paths or side paths. Lanes were longer and went somewhere other than between houses. |
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18 Jul 01 - 06:27 PM (#509918) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) I was amused by an entry in the OED about gennel (ginnel). 1613- "Robert Charnocke has newly erected a privie, the ffilthe whereof ffalleth into a certen gynnel or gutter." The first published use of the word for a long, narrow passage is 1669. Of course, these are the earliest dates found by the editors; they could be much earlier. Any songs about gennels? I have heard a lot of dialect on the BBC lately. BBC English was very useful in the days when radio reception was poor, and it was also a link that bound the far-flung empire. |
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19 Jul 01 - 02:38 PM (#510567) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: LR Mole You guys are making all this up, right? And you're all in a room together? "OK, we'll tell them the word for saucepan is...smorclet!!" |
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19 Jul 01 - 03:02 PM (#510582) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: MMario mole - everyone knows a "saucepan" is a "soppippin" |
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19 Jul 01 - 03:45 PM (#510638) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Sooz Bald Eagle- I don't think I heard about eightfoots until I moved to Hull. I always though they were the poor man's tenfoot! I'm resisting the temptation to start a thread about the different regional names for bread rolls (cobs, baps, breadcakes................) |
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19 Jul 01 - 03:51 PM (#510644) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Penny S. I think we've been there - Kentish huffkins, I remember. And we ain't makin' it up, 'onest. Just don't get us started on children's truce words, or the words for what you do with the tea after pouring in the boiling water and befoe pouring it out. We've got diversity over here, and then some. Penny |
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19 Jul 01 - 03:56 PM (#510650) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Penny S. Eh bien: ici un(e) vennel en Normandie.
Other references are to sites in Cromarty and Glasgow |
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19 Jul 01 - 04:05 PM (#510668) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Penny S. Other references I found are to ..... And this one |
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19 Jul 01 - 04:20 PM (#510690) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Penny S. I've run Google on twitten, vennel and ginnel, all of which come up - haven't tried the others yet, but here's a discussion on snickets and ginnels. By the way, I think the French vennel comes from Looking-glass land. Penny |
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20 Jul 01 - 03:28 AM (#511036) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Lizzy My recollection is in accord with Geoff the Duck. Having lived many years in Bradford and before that in North Yorkshire I understand a ginnel to be a snicket with a roof. So a ginnel is, for example, the passageway through a row of back-to-back houses. A snicket is, as Geoff says, a longer path or lane but open to the elements. In Leicester, where I now live, both are called jittys or jittyways. |
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20 Jul 01 - 03:44 PM (#511418) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: RoyH (Burl) I grew up in the Notts/derby border area. The word there was 'twitchell'. I assume that is how it's spelt, I never saw it written down. Our word for pavement was 'corsey', derived from 'causeway' I should think. |
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20 Jul 01 - 04:30 PM (#511466) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Twitchel is a very old word for a narrow passage between walls or hedges (Old and Middle English- see OED). It is interesting to see that it and some of the other words mentioned here survive locally. Twitten is old Sussex, as noted by Vectis. Twitting is another word for the same thing. Not all words mentioned here are considered dialect, by the way, they are just seldom or locally used now. Long may they survive! Television and computer English are removing much of the flavor of the English language. |
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20 Jul 01 - 04:33 PM (#511468) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,jack the lad has anyone heard of a "finkle"? I heard it as a lad in Yorkshire- my teacher said it was a ginnel. Jack The Lad |
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21 Jul 01 - 11:16 AM (#511979) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Ebbie Amazing. Wonder if we have any equivalent esoterica? Other than 'poke' for 'bag' or 'sack' in the American South, I can't think of a single one in U.S. English. On a less exotic note but still distinct from us, an English couple the other day told me that over there our 'sidewalk' is your 'pavement' and our 'pavement' is your 'tarmac'. Our 'tarmac' is the concrete or asphalt-surfaced idling section of a runway for a plane about to take off- what do you call that? Ebbie |
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21 Jul 01 - 02:52 PM (#512083) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Arnie Ebbie, Dead right! Sidewalk is pavement over here and tarmac is the road and also the airport runway. I won't bore you with the other differences as you no doubt know them already! None of which is to do with snickets, ginnels and all the rest - it's a wonder we Brits understand each other let alone your lot!!! |
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21 Jul 01 - 04:09 PM (#512138) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Les from Hull Jack the Lad - there are still many Finkle Streets in Yorkshire, but I'm not sure of the derivation. |
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22 Jul 01 - 04:45 AM (#512317) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Penny S. Actually, Arnie was the first to mention twittens Penny |
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02 Jan 13 - 08:00 AM (#3460311) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Neil B I have just returned from a walk around Alcester and Googled 'Tuery'. This gave me this thread which I have just read out to my wife and mum and it has provided great interest and amusement. Thank You! We have heard of so many of the different words, as between the three of us we have connections to Yorkshire, Leicestershire, The Midlands and Sussex, but as a Scouser I generally knew of them as 'entries'. However, many years ago I did some research and discovered that in Liverpool they were known as 'jiggers' and 'me mum' has just confirmed the same. |
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02 Jan 13 - 08:55 AM (#3460324) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: John MacKenzie There's a Finkle Street in Kendal. Apart from closes, in Scotland, we also have wynds. Poke mentioned above is common parlance in the west of Scotland, for a paper bag. Think, 'Buying a pig in a poke' Weakness was described as, not being able to punch your way out of a wet poke. |
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02 Jan 13 - 09:08 AM (#3460329) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: theleveller There's a Finkle Street in Selby. And I'm reminded of that Yorkshire description of a bow-legged person..."'E couldn't stop a pig in a ginnel." |
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02 Jan 13 - 09:29 AM (#3460333) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,henryp Scotland has wynds, but Lancashire has weinds in Preston; Main Sprit Weind, Anchor Weind Garstang; Thomas's Weind Great Eccleston; The Weind I think we'd call them ginnels today. |
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02 Jan 13 - 09:49 AM (#3460338) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: selby FINKLE comes from the Old Norse meaning elbow, bend or even dog-leg. There was also an old Danish word, vincle, which meant a corner, angle or short, winding street. Finkle St inSelby has a bend in it. |
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02 Jan 13 - 11:38 AM (#3460394) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: ian1943 Here in the city of Durham we call them vennels. |
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02 Jan 13 - 12:42 PM (#3460425) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Richard With regard to RoyH, "causeway" is derived from "Causey way" (however you spell it), not the other way round. I looked it up once, but can't remember where1 Might have been Chambers' dictionary. |
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02 Jan 13 - 01:09 PM (#3460444) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST In Salford we called them entries |
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02 Jan 13 - 02:11 PM (#3460479) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Valmai Goodyear Yes, these are twittens in Sussex and Lewes has a network of them, like a secondary nervous system. When we have our own social medium it should probably be called Twitten, in fact. Getting round the town on the main streets is inevitably slowed down by meeting people you know, but if you're in a hurry you use the twittens because they are always empty. Most of them have flint walls stitched with brick courses. I'm told that the name is related to the German word 'zwischen', meaning 'between'. There are some splendid pictures of Lewes twittens among these by the local artist Peter Messer. Valmai (Lewes) |
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02 Jan 13 - 04:16 PM (#3460527) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,BrendanB Never heard of a ginnell with a soft 'g', 'though I have heard it used in Northumberland, Yorkshire and Coventry. Loads of Fenkle streets in Northumberland and Tyneside, I'd love to know what it means. |
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02 Jan 13 - 07:03 PM (#3460587) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Rumncoke The ways called ginnells, g as in good, around my first home in Barnsley now in South Yorkshire, were the ways between double hedges, often worn down with use so they were in effect an 0 shape, with the branches meeting overhead, or any narrow lane with the same over arching. A snicket was a way through - as in - Tut School? Well - if thas driving its up t'ill, reight at top and on a bit tut gates, but if thah's walkin tha goes straight on that way and there's a snicket bit'ween t'ouses, wi rails on't coursey edge, tha can't miss it. It cums art ut side on't school, and tha gooes rand tut left. |
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02 Jan 13 - 07:43 PM (#3460602) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Geoff the Duck |
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02 Jan 13 - 07:53 PM (#3460608) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Geoff the Duck I was trying to log in. new android tablet not behaving on mudcat |
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02 Jan 13 - 08:16 PM (#3460617) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: ripov If ginnels have a roof perhaps there's a connection with kennels? In the midlands "twitting" is making fun of people. Don't know how this could fit. |
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02 Jan 13 - 08:32 PM (#3460624) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: foggers Ooo good thread! I mainly grew up in N Derybshire where the term for the tunnel between two terraced houses was gennel with a soft G. Then I went to be a student in Sheffield and encountered the term ginnel with hard G. In mid Derbyshire only a few miles south of my home town the term twitchell was used, which others on this thread associate with the neighbouring county of Nottinghamshire. Now, what about generic terms for sweeties? In Chesterfield I grew up calling them "spice" but just a few miles south in Tibshelf/Alfreton its "tuffees". |
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03 Jan 13 - 02:38 AM (#3460694) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Rob Naylor Snickets and ginnells where I'm from (near Cleckheaton). But both were passageways rather than lanes...ginnell with a hard "g" and roofed or covered, snicket not. They were both narrow....you could invariably touch both walls (of both types) with your arms outstretched (even as children). Many of the twittens I've encountered down here since moving to the Kent - Sussex borders are too wide to be called either ginnells or snickets where I'm from....they'd just be lanes, back alleys or "dubbel raws" (narrow back or side lane between two rows of houses). |
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03 Jan 13 - 02:44 AM (#3460695) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Rob Naylor Foggers: sweets were "spice" in and around cleckheaton. Except for licorise, which was always called "spanish". And a VERY local term for "cowshed" was "mistall". Never heard of anyone from outside the Cleckeaton-Wyke-Halifax triangle who had any idea what it means. |
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03 Jan 13 - 03:08 AM (#3460698) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Colin Holt Hi My recollections coming from Morley near Leeds, A Ginnell was a kind of alleyway between houses, usually covered. A snicket was more a pathway usually between rows of hedges etc, and more often than not a short cut somewhere. |
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03 Jan 13 - 04:07 AM (#3460705) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Will Fly Snicket in my native Lancashire - ginnel when I lived in Leeds - twitten down here in West Sussex. Do "lokes" count? Many years in Norwich, in the Bere Street area, there were narrow passages of the street, and these opened out into central courtyards, often with workshops overlooking the yards. An elder brother of of one of my Suffolk great-grandparents had a coach works in one of these lokes in the late 19th century. Any other places have lokes? |
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03 Jan 13 - 05:18 AM (#3460719) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Michael Where I grew up in North east Derbyshire it would have been written 'jennell' and was (and still is) the passageway between blocks of terraced houses. Mike |
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03 Jan 13 - 12:38 PM (#3460903) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST 'Lokes' presumably from latin 'locus'=a place. A couple of them in Walsham, also Norfolk, e.g. 'Bank Loke'. In the Midlands this might be 'Bank Passage'. 'Loke (loc?)' is in common use on the railway for the site of trackside equipment, probably here short for 'location', but ultimately from the same source. |
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03 Jan 13 - 02:20 PM (#3460944) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Peter the Squeezer In Leicestershire the word for a footpath in a town / village (ie between buildings)is "Jitty" |
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03 Jan 13 - 04:12 PM (#3460995) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: ripov And "Wynds" in Scotland and the North becomes "Wents" in Kent and Suffolk. |
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04 Jan 13 - 07:33 AM (#3461171) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Manitas_at_home 'Wantz' in parts of Essex/East London but we're told it means 'way'. |
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04 Jan 13 - 08:59 PM (#3461514) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,ripov As does "gate", from Norse "gata", (and I imagine related to German "gehen", to go) which only later acquired the meaning of the thing that closed the (passage)way |
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05 Jan 13 - 04:01 AM (#3461600) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Rob Naylor Hence the street names common in towns and cities that were once part of the "Danelaw": Highgate, Towngate, Coppergate, etc....uit's amazing how many northern dialect words come from Old Norse....when I moved to live and work in Norway for a few years in 1983 I found it relatively easy to pick up Norwegian, as so many of the words, and grammatical constructions, were familiar. Words like "beck" and "fell" immediately come to mind, but then "shaw" meaning woodland, as in "Birkenshaw", a village near where I was born...any Norwegian would translate that as "the birch wood". although Norwegian for "woodland" is now probnounced "skog", most would jknow that the Old Norse pronunciation was close to "shaw". Then there's "laik" as in "is thy Robert laikin' aht?", directly from "lek", "to play", in Norwegian. It gets more obscure when talking about it "silin' dahn" (raining hard in Yorkshire) but understandable when you know that Norwegian for pouring something through a sieve is "sile"! |
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05 Jan 13 - 04:03 AM (#3461601) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Rob Naylor As a totally irrelevant aside, I was amused to discover that "gift", the Norwegian word for "married" also means "poisoned"!!! |
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05 Jan 13 - 11:06 AM (#3461705) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: redhorse I grew up in Worcester, and recognise "snicket" as a narrow cut-through between streets. I suspect it has a common root with "sneak": any etymologists out there? |
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05 Jan 13 - 12:42 PM (#3461758) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,John Foxen I'd not come across the word snicket (except in the Lemony Snicket books my kids used to read) until my musical partner Margaret used it. She's from Ilford and had picked up the word from her sister who lived for a time in Selby where it seemed to be used in the same way that redhorse mentions. Like redhorse Margaret hthought it sounded like a "sneak-it" and now uses it to refer to any little short cut. When we're driving to a gig if I'm told to "take the snicket on the left" I know I have to look out for a little alleyway rather than a main road. I find this thread so intriguing we might have to work it into one of our songs: "Through snickets and through ginnels/I lately took my way..." |
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05 Jan 13 - 05:10 PM (#3461884) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: redhorse I think if you could get a car through, it's too wide to be a snicket (:-)) |
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05 Jan 13 - 06:01 PM (#3461906) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,John Foxen Down south we have a better class of snicket ;-) |
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05 Jan 13 - 10:38 PM (#3461976) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Peter K (Fionn) Jitty seems to prevail over ginnell/snicket in north Notts villages. John, in Norn Iran a poke is an ice cream cornet. (An ice cream wafer sandwich is a slider.) |
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06 Jan 13 - 02:37 PM (#3462227) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Paul Davenport My Grandmother referred to the one next to her house as a 'cut' but then she was from Jersey so I guess she had an excuse. We called them tenfoots. This was in HUll in the 1950s and 60s. |
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06 Jan 13 - 05:43 PM (#3462311) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Michael And they still are tenfoots in Hull Paul. Mike |
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06 Jan 13 - 06:06 PM (#3462327) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: selby I always thought Cuts where Canals |
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07 Jan 13 - 06:44 AM (#3462532) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Uncle Tone I asked around in Whitby over the weekend. Snickets and ginnels are pretty much interchangeable there whether covered over or not. Tone |
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07 Jan 13 - 06:56 AM (#3462535) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,henryp "And 'Wynds' in Scotland and the North becomes "Wents" in Kent and Suffolk." Lancashire also has 'weinds', though I think they'd be called ginnels today. |
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08 Jan 13 - 04:36 AM (#3463010) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,SID In Chorley, Lancashire, "entries" are narrow 4ft wide passages between terraced houses which then split left & right to give access to half a dozen back yards. They are regarded as private and are entered through a door from the street. Ginnels, snickets, alleys (and jiggers in Liverpool) are public footpaths / shortcuts. To add to the confusion, we have a "Peter Wink" in Chorley town centre which is a flight of steps linking Market Street and Peter Street. The "Wiends" in Preston are wide enough to get a vehicle (horse & cart)down. |
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08 Jan 13 - 07:50 AM (#3463068) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: ripov Maybe, in the days when obstructions to movement were woodlands and heath rather than houses and car-parks, paths, or snickets, were cut (or nicked) through them with snickersnees, which, like vorpal blades, went "snicker-snack"? |
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08 Jan 13 - 12:29 PM (#3463173) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Seayaker Where I was brought up in Kenilworth, Warwickshire they were called "Jetties" |
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08 Jan 13 - 12:41 PM (#3463179) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST Also in Whitby there are 'yards', narrow footpaths between terraces of houses leading off at right angle to the main street |
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08 Jan 13 - 07:59 PM (#3463386) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Dave Hunt In the part of the Black Country where I came from, the passageway between houses was 'the entry' I now live near Broseley in Shropshire, and it's the only place round here that has Jitty's (Tilers Jitty, Old Jitty, etc) |
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08 Jan 13 - 10:13 PM (#3463425) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Rumncoke Wider ways are alleys - there are side alleys and back alleys. When my family were on holiday in Whitby over 50 years ago there was a storm and the harbour was full of fishing boats and other vessels which had taken shelter there. At the age of seven I went off alone to the harbour to see them all lined up wall to wall. I think that they were probably mostly dutch, and the town was full of burley men in ganseys (woolly jumpers). They spoke to the locals in their own speach, and the locals spoke English, and both sides were able to understand the other well enough - at least to be able to buy foodstuff and find an engineer for a broken engine. I suppose that over the years a few words were picked up, not enough to speak the other language, but to be able to get the sense of what was said to them. When I went to the sweet shop and found it crowded with fishermen I was rather shy, but when one said to come in, I understood - 'comb innen misie' no trouble. |
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09 Jan 13 - 04:56 AM (#3463471) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Will Fly I wonder if there might be some connection between 'snicket' and 'cut' - perhaps representing the concept of a passage cut through housing... To snick something with a knife is to cut it. |
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09 Jan 13 - 03:44 PM (#3463694) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: ripov I think there's definitely a connection, Will. Quick googling revealed a "snicker-snee" or large knife, so perhaps these snickets were cut through the english jungle of olden days, by a "snicker-snee" going "snicker-snack" and maybe accidentally rendering the Jabberwock extinct? |
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10 Jan 13 - 01:08 PM (#3464043) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Paul Reade Where I grew up in Lancashire I remember some ginnels / alleys had street signs like "Passage no. 3" and seemed to lead into a courtyard of back-to-back terraced houses, long-since demolished. The council here has been erecting gates across ginnels / back streets as a security measure. They call them "alley gates" which raises an interesting question ... Are the people who erect them "Alligators?" |
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11 Jan 13 - 12:28 PM (#3464552) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: The Sandman in nottingham they were called twichells |
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11 Jan 13 - 06:04 PM (#3464732) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: Michael 'Alleygater' is a scheme operated by many local councils to do just what you describe Paul. Mike |
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15 Aug 13 - 02:26 PM (#3549502) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Bodian Lonning - Cumberland & Westmorland (or lonnin) Loaning - further east towards the Pennines (or loanen). Lane in old north Lancashire (now Cumbria). All mean the same thing - an old vehicular / cart track between walls or hedges. Tickleberry Lonning is one I remember.... |
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15 Aug 13 - 07:20 PM (#3549616) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,eldergirl Peter K, the ice cream cornet called a "poke" would have been bought from the "hokey-pokey man" who was probably Italian, and said "ecco e poco" as he handed you your little glass dish of ice cream..(see Oh, oh, Antonio, that ancient music hall ditty.) My old English teacher was a whiz on word derivations. And our route to school from the bus station went through a twitten. |
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16 Aug 13 - 03:36 AM (#3549724) Subject: RE: Of snickets and ginnels From: IanC The woolly jumpers called "ganseys" (almost universal round the English coast) are Guernseys. :-) |
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25 Apr 14 - 10:00 AM (#3622236) Subject: RE: Folklore/language: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Morrisman68 I grew up in Witney in Oxfordshire, where older folk would speak of 'chewries' instead of alley-ways. I never saw the word written down and suspect it has fallen out of use there. I theorised that it might come from an uneducated English rendering of tuyere, a 'nozzle'. So I was both startled and delighted to discover a tuery in Alcester. A local thought that the local history society had suggested a connection with abbatoirs, but I thought not. So I was very interested to search on tuery and find this thread. Ben |
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25 Apr 14 - 10:24 AM (#3622242) Subject: RE: Folklore/language: Of snickets and ginnels From: IanC Guest: Tuyere (pronounced Tweer) is commonly used in English to denote the pipe through which air is blown into a blacksmith's forge. An uneducated english person would almost certainly know this and so wouldn't make that mistake. The word itself is, anyway, specifically used for a pipe or nozzle from which air is blown. :-) |
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25 Apr 14 - 04:35 PM (#3622322) Subject: RE: Folklore/language: Of snickets and ginnels From: Anne Lister And the word "tuyere" comes, sans doute, from the French word "tuyau" meaning a pipe. |
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26 Apr 14 - 01:57 PM (#3622469) Subject: RE: Folklore/language: Of snickets and ginnels From: GUEST,Morrisman68 That is very interesting and thought-provoking. But I am still at a loss to explain Alcester's tueries and Witney's 'chewries', other than as corruptions of tuyere. It wouldn't be the first case of mispronounced French, would it? Didn't someone eminent once remark that English was largely badly pronounced French? Oh, someone eminent and French, naturally! |
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27 Apr 14 - 06:31 AM (#3622536) Subject: RE: Folklore/language: Of snickets and ginnels From: Anne Lister You pronounce tuyau as twee-oh, so no that wouldn't explain chewries or tueries. |