Snickelling in York

I've taken a few days holiday to tag onto my week off and decided to get myself out and about for a couple of days whilst Simon is working and Becky at school.

I decided that I would get the train up to York today and did a bit of a google search on 'ancient York' as I wanted to find some parts of the city that I'd not seen before.

York Station

The search came up with a book called 'Snickelways of York' by Mark W Jones. Snickelways is an amalgan of the words snicket, ginnel and alleyway and is used to describe the various passageways and alleys throught the city of York. The book has been written in true Wainwright style, by hand, and is a great map of howd to get around the cente of York using mainly Snickelways.

Having decided this was just the ticket for my day in York, I got myself a copy and then set off to discover York as I'd never seen it before. I really enjoyed myself traversing the various passageways with such wondrous names as Mad Alice Lane and Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate. Some of the passageways held wonderful discoveries and hidden gems such as the 15th Century Holy Trinity Church on Goodramgate and the Roman Bath pub whose cellar houses the Roman Bath Museum where you can see excavations of an actual roman bath. And have a spot of lunch!!

The whole experience took me 4 hours although this included a half hour break for lunch and frequent stops to read the book for directions and information about each little place it took me to.

Whether you've never been to York before or think you know it like the back of your hand, I'd definitely recommend the book and also a chance go Snickelling. You can do the whole lot in one fell swoop as I did, or little bits of it at a time. I will admit that I didn't have a lot of energy left for shopping afterwards, but a half hour rest and liquid refreshment at The Hole in the Wall soon remedied that!



More photos here