Showing posts with label Mad Alice Lane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mad Alice Lane. Show all posts

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.