The paths between rows of houses in this part of Northamptonshire are called jitties. It’s not a phrase I had come across before I came to live in this part of the world and it does appear to be an East Midlands’ phrase.
As I headed down this jitty yesterday morning on my way to the Post Office I stopped to look at a beautiful Comma butterfly on the ivy growing in this jitty. There were clouds of small bees on the ivy too.
As I passed through the graveyard of the Methodist church a single Large White fluttered past.
On the buddleia in my garden a single Small Tortoiseshell was feeding on a flower.
The day was warm but there was no getting away from the fact that this was a sunny autumn day and summer has ended.
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Where I grew up in the East Midlands, a jitty was known as a twitchel. I think it’s a lovely word and haven’t heard it used anywhere else.
Saffy – nice! Thank you.
Re: Jitties
I was born in Manchester and lived there until late teens. There were many terraced houses close to where I lived in a suburb in South Manchester called Chorlton-cum-Hardy as all over the Greater Manchester area. Very similar to the houses you see in the credits / intro to Coronation Street (set in Manchester). We used to play in and use the alley ways between these houses. We called them alleys but more often than not called them “snickets”. The term “ginnel” was also often used in Manchester and has been in the script in episodes of Coronation Street.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g187069-d6510964-i95680403-Coronation_Street_The_Tour-Manchester_Greater_Manchester_England.html
Mark – many thanks indeed – very interesting! And welcome!
Where I grew up, in Hull, we called them “snickets”.
Philip – thank you!
The term jitty is used in Shropshire too. See this: http://www.visitbridgnorth.co.uk/downloads/broseley-shropshire.pdf
‘Loanen’ or ‘loaney’ in County Antrim; “ginnel” in central Lancashire – though more noted for mosses and midges than butterflies in the gable-shaded soggy one beside our terrace.
Mark
In Leeds and possibly elsewhere in Yorkshire, such paths are known as ginnels, which according to the OED derives from the word channel or gutter of mid 17th century English (see http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/10/regional-words-alleyway/).
As for the bees, they may have been Colletes hederae and BWARS are mapping their spread: http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=content/colletes-hederae-mapping-project
I would expect Northants to be near their current northern limit in the UK so worth getting confirmation with a photo and sending the record in.
R.
They were called snickets or ginnels in Burnley, too. Both were narrower than the normal cobbled backstreets between which snickets were short transits. In contrast, you’d go up t’ginnel to get to’t back of th’ouse. Probably your pal would have left t’door on’t sneck for you: i.e. unlocked and only closed by the sneck.
One particular ginnel I knew behind Settle Terrace (off St Cuthbert Street) was leafy with privet and dog rose – and a place for more diverse birding away from the house sparrows and starlings that were abundant around the terraced backyards and slate-roofed kitchens. Luxury.
“on my way to the Post Office”
I thought they were extinct in England
‘Jitty’ here in neighbouring Leicestershire too!
Kevin – thank you
Aye, ginnels and snickets here in Yorkshire. In neighbouring Lincolnshire there are ‘ten-foots’ which are the footpaths between what might be deemed ‘built up’ housing.
Mud-lark – thank you
Alley, snicket, ginnel and snickelways from the York area, where if memory serves me right someone wrote a book 20-30 yrs ago with a combination of the above in the title. Narrow alleys were often called runnels which I think technically are the open drains in snickets………etc etc
“Alas I’m brooding alone by the runnel
While she’s in Capri with her swain
And the light at the end of the tunnel
Is the light of an oncoming train”
Martin WW – I like it!
In Erdington, Birmingham 60+ years ago we called our short cut path between houses a “gully.” The shared passage serving the back doors between adjacent houses though, was known as a “back alley” and not. thankfully, a back anything else!
A ‘jigger’ or ‘back alley’ in Liverpool (Scouse). Where you’d find ‘jigger rabbits’ – cats