Ginnels, and snickets

[nirakaro]

I was riding along a ginnel (a narrow passage between buildings) yesterday, and wondered, is that just a northern term? In Cumbria it's called a snicket. Does it have other names elsewhere?

[Paulatic]

I’ve only ever heard ginnel, wynd or alley

[Jdsk]

EDITED: Crossed with above.

Both of those are northern.

Also wynd, twitten and twitchel. Alley where I grew up.

Wiktionary has a few more:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Thesaurus:alley#English

Jonathan

PS: Snickleway is very modern.

[Rod Goodfellow]

In Sheffield in 1940s known as a jennel

[Stradageek]

My daughter uses a Ginnel to get to her back door in Sheffield, if it were here in Northampton it would be a 'Jitty'

[Tangled Metal]

It's not a northern thing but a local thing as in local to where they use it. I lived in West Lancashire South of Preston and we had never heard of such terms. I only learnt of ginnel after starting high school in Blackburn. Both are Northern but only one of them actually had such thoroughfares for local terms to develop around.

Put simply you need the thing to be common in an area for a local term to develop I reckon. Do southern towns and cities have ginnels in as common a frequency as those Northern areas with their own versions of that word?

[Cyril Haearn]

There is a book about The Snickelways of York
I love them too, I think there are a lot in Dunedin/Edinburgh, with steps!

[nirakaro]

How wide can it be, and still be a ginnel? I think of an alley as something that you could, at a pinch, drive a car along; the ginnels that I know are definitely a good bit narrower than that.

[Oldjohnw]

Ginnel, vennel in Borders/N Northumberland.

[keyboardmonkey]

Alleys and ginnels don’t make the cut; I like a good tenfoot. How about you?

[Paulatic]

I’d of thought a vennel too wide to be a ginnel ?
I was thinking of the Vennel in Dumfries then I looked it up and you’re right it can also be an alley as well as something similar to a loaning.

[axel_knutt]

Gants
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gants-of-braintree

[RodT]

In Cornwall we have ‘opes’. Sometimes we have ‘igh ‘opes. Sorry.

[mumbojumbo]

In Hampshire called backwacks.(In Surrey "weironeputsbins"

[sjs]

In Sheffield in 1940s known as a jennel

East Midlands, or at least Derby/Nottingham area, they're gitties.