Ginnels and snickets

Ginnels and snickets

It's fascinated when words become quite specific, when they relate to particular variations of things widely familiar, especially variations of type and context. For example, one can find narrow, pedestrian alleyways between the back yards of houses in many countries. In the Netherlands it's through such alleyways that one often enters his back yard with a bicycle in tow . In contrast to streets, these alleyways usually have no name; despite being familiar to the whole neighbourhood, one can only refer them by reference to the houses they separate.

In the north of England, these alleyways are called ginnels or snickets and I cannot hear these words without immediately thinking of long vistas, strictly defined by brick walls, fences and sheds under clouded skies - images from films and television dramas. Reversely, when some Northern drama visits such stereotypes and the words immediately come to my mind, making me rather proud that I know such terms, despite having never lived in the north of England.