Twitchels

[g eli]

In my village passages between buildings or fenced property were called twitchels, the main one was The Twitchel. iI am wondering if this was a general term or was it specific to the area, and what were they called elsewhere I am pretty sure that they are called ginels in parts of Yorkshire

[JenB]

The 1898 Dialect Dictionary stated that the term twitchell was used in the 'North Country', Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Sussex.
Full entry is here (l-h page) https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi06wrig/page/290/mode/2up?view=theater

Here is the entry for ginnell https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi02wrig/page/618/mode/2up

[Vance Mead]

I have seen in some contexts that it was a narrow Y shaped fork in the road.

[MollyC]

Narrow Twitchell - see south east corner of this map:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/231281349

[arthurk]

Growing up in probably a different part of Yorkshire, I don't think I heard of twitchells. Ginnels, yes, but we'd just as often say snicket:

https://archive.org/details/cu31924088038421/page/580/mode/2up?view=theater

[fiddlerslass]

Growing up in Co.Durham not heard of Twitchells either but am familiar with Snickets.

[g eli]

Thank you everyone for your interest. The dictionary of dialects make fascinating reading. The word seems to be fairly widespread, at least in the counties around Derbyshire.

[Melbell]

My grandmother lived opposite to a twitten (phonetic or whatever!) in Sussex. It's a small footpath.

I don't know how it's spelt!

Melbell

[tillypeg]

Whitby, North Yorkshire has narrow alleyways, generally leading down to the river/harbour, known as ghauts.