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  1. #1
    Rod Neep
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    Default A "twitchell" in Nottingham.

    An interesting early reference to the term "twitchell".
    This is a local dialect term still in use in Nottingham to describe a narrow passage or alley.


    From the records of rental of common lands in the town:

    "Also ye Comons has a twychel yat lyges on ye norht' syd ye
    Fleshusse taward ye est end, betux ye sayd Fleshusse and ye hussus
    yat Magod, draper, dwels in"

    Also, the Commons has a twychel that lies on the North side [of] the
    Flesh-house toward the East end, between the said Flesh-House and the houses that Magod, draper, dwells in.

    * Flesh-house is The Shambles

    The reference dates to 1435
    Language doesn't change!
    Last edited by Guest; 13-08-2007 at 9:58 PM.

  2. #2
    Mythology
    Guest

    Default

    Live and learn.

    My sister lives on a houseboat which is normally moored at Nottingham Marina (yes, we're all crazy in our family ), but it's not a city that I've really *visited* myself much - mostly just trotted from the railway station down to the bus station to catch a bus to some obscure village or another.

    I hadn't come across "twitchell" at all - ancient or modern!

  3. #3
    busyglen
    Guest

    Default

    I must say that I hadn't heard of it either. It was strange that I managed to translate it quite easily, before I realised that Rod had put the translation underneath. But then, once you have got the hang of translating old Wills etc. in the old language, it's surprising how easy a lot of it is. Having said that...I still didn't know what a `twitchell' was.

    Glenys

  4. #4
    Rod Neep
    Guest

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    It is a term that is in very normal use in Nottingham today. I grew up with it.

    Interestingly, an "alley" (narrow pathway), has various dialect words in different parts of the country.

    Ros
    Last edited by Guest; 13-08-2007 at 9:58 PM.

  5. #5
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    I'm not really familiar with Nottingham other than a genealogical interest in the county so it's no surprise that this one's new to me.

    I've come across the term "gennel" (various spellings) used about some places in Nottinghamshire eg "1823 - Portland Row, Selston built, which was a continual row of 47 terraced houses with no jennels. (Demolished in 1966)" on the Jacksdale & Westwood site. I'd vaguely assumed that gennel - which I'd met before in Sheffield - was the general term used in Nottinghamshire.

    I'll make a note of "twitchell"! Incidentally, to me it sounds a bit similar to "twitten" which is used in Sussex and thereabouts to mean much the same sort of thing.

  6. #6
    Rod Neep
    Guest

    Default

    Yes, gennel and twitten are dialect examples of the same thing.

    I have always found it strange that there are extant dialect verions for that one thing throughout England and Scotland.
    Last edited by Guest; 13-08-2007 at 9:58 PM.

  7. #7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Rod Neep
    An interesting early reference to the term "twitchell".
    This is a local dialect term still in use in Nottingham to describe a narrow passage or alley.
    Not heard of this word for at least half an hour
    Neil
    in Nottingham

  8. #8
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    I don't know if I'm interpreting the OED correctly but... "a1889 Notice (Bedford) in N. & Q. 7th Ser. VII. 275/2 All persons passing by this twitchel are requested to go up or down directly".

    If that's referring to the town of Bedford, usage must be more widespread than I thought

  9. #9
    MarkJ
    Guest

    Default

    I just mentioned it to my wife, who hails from Nottingham - she knew what a twitchell was!
    Her grandmother always advised her to be careful going up the twitchell when going down the alley.

  10. #10
    Mythology
    Guest

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    "I've come across the term "gennel" (various spellings) used about some places in Nottinghamshire ..."

    I wonder if, way back, this has the same origin as something Cornish that Mark may be familiar with - "gunnies".

    William Pryce, in "Mineralogia Cornubiensis" (1778) has, at the back of the book, a seventeen page "explanation of the Cornu-technical terms and idioms of tinners", including:

    GUNNIES - means breadth or width. A single Gunnies is three feet wide; a Gunnies and a half is four feet and a half; and a double Gunnies is six feet wide. The former vauts or cavities that were dug in a Mine, are termed "The old Gunnies;" and if they are full of water, they are sometimes called "The Gunnies of water;" yet more commonly "A House of water.

    [The end quote mark is missing in the original, not a typo of mine]

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