Thursday, January 7, 2010

When "hanging around here" meant something else



What's in a name?  Yesterday, Whitby Daily Photo featured Arguments Yard, named after its builder, but the history of this York snickelway is rather more macabre: Mad Alice Smith was hanged at the castle in 1823 for poisoning her husband.

The word snickelway is the brilliant invention of local author, Mark W Jones, who used it in the title of his very popular and frequently republished book, A Walk Around the Snickelways of York. There are about 50 of them within the walls alone, best visited on a guided tour.

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