Ginnels, Alleys, Snickets. (Call them what you will.)

[David Whipp]

Yes, the street pictured is Bessie Street. At the top, the ginnel takes you through East View Terrace to the top of Ash Grove. The gable end house on East View Terrace was knocked down a few years ago; the site was paved with setts and tree pits created. I should have a picture of the ginnel itself...

[David Whipp]

Couldn't find an East View Terrace picture... here's one after an Urban Ginnel scheme was carried out in a different part of town.

[PanBiker]

I could hazard a guess at this one but would have to go and have look to confirm. Not necessarily on a natural through route if I am right. It's a very tidy job though.

[David Whipp]

Here's the same ginnel with a picture taken before the setts were regrouted.

[PanBiker]

Yes, the street pictured is Bessie Street. At the top, the ginnel takes you through East View Terrace to the top of Ash Grove. The gable end house on East View Terrace was knocked down a few years ago; the site was paved with setts and tree pits created. I should have a picture of the ginnel itself...

No 15 has been missing more than just a few years. I have have lived on here 25 years now and it was not there when I moved in.

[David Whipp]

But it only seems a few years to me Ian!

[PanBiker]

Come on now David your not that much older than me! Just looked on the 1960's Mario Maps aerial photos and it's there then, not sure of the date that the survey was done though, the site does not give the information only the decade.

[David Whipp]

It's during my time as a councillor; I'd place the clearance during the first half of the 1980s.

[PanBiker]

I'll ask my neighbours Rodney and maybe Jean as well, one or the other is bound to know.

[Stanley]

Is the last one off the back road to Letcliffe?

[David Whipp]

Yes, the path which leads up to the back entrance you picture. The top end of the ginnel is in the very exposed part of the picture.

[Stanley]

[David Whipp]

From the other end.

[Stanley]

How it used to be....

[Stanley]

Does this qualify as a ginnel?

[David Whipp]

Is it part of a street at an original lower level, with the carriageway lifted up to its current profile?

(I'm distraught because I haven't recognised where it is...)

By the by, the previous series of pictures showed the ginnel from Butts through to Commercial Street.

[PanBiker]

Just as you turn off Church Street onto Wapping I reckon David.

[Stanley]

Ian's right, it shows the original level of the road before the ford was culverted in about 1816 and is access to the cellars of the houses on the corner.

[chinatyke]

In my mind ginnels, alleys and snickets are different. Just the way I was brought up in Colne and what we labelled various things. Ginnels were always covered, like archways through buildings. Alleys were always between buildings. Snickets were between walls or fences and generally but not always had land not buildings at each side and bollards at each end. Wonder if anyone else thinks they are different? Some were just "short cuts". I hadn't realised until today that snicket and ginnel were just a northern dialect words and not in the dictionary ( Concise Oxford Dictionary and Collins ENglish Dictionary).
I didn't realise you had so many in Barlick.

[Stanley]

In my head they are always access or short cuts, all of them....

[plaques]

Chinatyke you will recognise this one in Colne. Over 100 yards long and about 2' 6" wide. More than a "snicket" more like a path. This is probably where Robin Hood met Little John.

[chinatyke]

Yes, I recognise that one and have used it many times. It is between Byron Road and Keighley Road down the side of Colne Cricket field. I used to live just behind Colne Cricket Club in Venables Avenue. I call this example a snicket.

[plaques]

Spot on Chinatyke. Its still well used but they still haven't fixed the intercom at both ends for pram users.
Back to Barlick please David.

[David Whipp]

Sorry, have been AWOL at our Bands on the Square event...

Here's another Barlick example. I assume this was created in the late '60s or early '70s; anyone know why that's the likely period?

[PanBiker]

It's from the Co-op car park where the railway sidings used to be up on to Cooperative Street. Route not accessible while the station and sidings were there. Took a bit of thinking about but once the penny dropped I thought I would get in before Stanley, (no doubt one of his favourite routes to the "cathedral of choice").