Up the back passage

[mr_hippo]

I've also heard them called 'jiggers'.
I have only heard of one being named. It ran from one BICC factory gate in Station Road, Prescot, along the fence and came out in Sewell Street and was called 'Box Entry' - so called because during WWII the steel fence went to help the war effort and was temporarily replaced by wooden boxes and pallets - any more named entries?

 

[Abitrary]

Ginnels, enogs and jiggers?????

I'm booking an appointment with my surveyor tommorrow to make sure I haven't got one up my back alley

 

[Arch]

I probably call it a back alley. And although I shared some Leicestershire heritage with Patrick, I'd say an 'entry' was more the thing that runs down the side of a terraced house...

Ginnels and Snickets are not exclusively that sort of alley as I understand it, but any narrow pedestrian passageway...

 

[Gerry Attrick]

When I lived oooop north in Wearside, they were "Ten-foots" no matter the width.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Back alley or alleyway. AFAIC a ginnel is the narrow covered passage between two terraced houses - but I might be wrong!

They're called vennels up in Scotland.

 

[Fnaar]

They're called vennels up in Scotland.

I admit I started this thread simply to satisfy my need for a teasing thread title, but it's quite interesting as it 'appens....
I never had a word for them, as where I grew up, we didn't have them. I first encountered them in Northampton, where I think they were called gennels, and have heard/seen various gennel, jinnel, jennel, etc variations sincce, plus 'lane', 'back lane' etc.
Wiktionary gives the following, and interestingly the Scottish vennel is like the French vennelle....

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ginnel

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gennel (note the snicket and twitchell refs here)

 

[Slowgrind]

Jigger or Back Jigger in these parts.

 

[Noodley]

Sounds like a "Closie"

No, it's not a closie - that's something different.

Yep, vennell or (maybe) pend would cover it.

 

[Foghat]

I don't think either 'snicket' (Yorkshire) or 'twitten' (Southeast) are the right words here, don't they refer to a very narrow passageway between houses or gardens, not wide enough for a car?

Yes - having grown up in Sussex and often used the term, I can confirm that's certainly correct for 'twitten'; not sure about 'snicket', though.