Ginnels, Snickets and Snickelways!

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on August 05, 2004

In Reply to: Ginnels, Snickets and Snickelways! posted by Lewis on August 05, 2004

: : Can anyone tell me the difference (if any?) between a ginnel,a snicket, and a snickelway?
: : I've been in Yorkshire a few years now, and no-one seems sure!!

: That sounds familiar - I'm sure a ginnel is a back accessway - I think it might be one that doesn't go under the house - that always used to be called a 'passage'. In Venice they have a particular name "Sottoportego" to denote a passageway under a building to contrast with a "calle" which doesn't.

: Snicket? I have a feeling that that is the under-building passage, but I stand to be corrected.
: I would deduce that a 'snicketway' might be the same as a 'carriageway' - a covered passage big enough to take a carriage passing through.

: Please correct me.

I found a website called "International Pedestrian Lexicon" user.itl.net/~wordcraf/lexicon.html that offers this definition of snickelway:

"snickelway, snickleway - generic term for alleyways, snickets or ginnels; in other words, narrow passages leading from one place to another, which may have walls or hedges on either side (Northern England)"

This definition makes it sound like they're all interchangeable.

Some of them are bounded on both sides by fences, and others by walls.

• How about mews? Ward 06/August/04
  • How about mews? Brian from Shawnee 07/August/04
    • Blowing in the wynd Henry 07/August/04
      • Blowing in the wynd Bob 08/August/04