Holy Trinity Church

The next set of snickelways lead back up to Holy Trinity church.

The first one is mad alice lane. It is marked on the Low Petergate end, but not on the swinegate end.

Snickelway 11 - Mad Alice Lane

Snickelway 12 - Hornpot Lane

This snickelway looks to be part of Poundland, but is a super snickelway that leads to Holy Trinity church. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays (according to the book) but the day I tried it was originally locked as it was Monday, but later on near lunch time, it was open!

Holy Trinity is well worth a look. It has some interesting features - including the original boxes for pews. There are guides which are very helpful and provide lots of information about the church.

Snickelway 13 - Tonge's Court

This is the pathway from the Holy Trinity Church to the street (Goodramgate - named after Gutheran - 12th Century).

 

King's Square & St Sampson's Square

The next set of snickelways from the book are leading up to King's square and then around St Sampson's Square.

Snickelway 7 - St Andrewgate

The King's square end of St Andrewgate has been restricted by bollards and so qualifies as a snickelway. 

Snickelway 8  - Newgate

Another busy footway that qualifies for the elevated status of a snickelway is Newgate which skirts the market and leads to Patrick Pool.

Snickelway 9 - Patrick Pool

Turn right into Patrick Pool and walk alongside St Sampson's church. Then head to St Sampson's square and right next to the Three Cranes pub, there is a snickelway - it is rather salubrious, graffiti, dustbins and so on.

Second set of snickelways

Snickelway 4

After walking down ogleforth (where the chapter offices are located) and turning right onto Goodramgate, the next snickelway is a neat shortcut through Bedern. Bedern has been restored using lottery funds.

Snickelway 5

This is a tiny walkway at the end of Bedern Path - which looks like a private area between houses, but is actually a public right of way down to snickelway 5.

Snickelway 6

Turn right onto St Andrewgate and head around St Andrew's Hall and church. This is a nice little short cut that I have used many times to get down to stonebow on my way to my flat in Hungate.

Start of Walk - Bootham Bar

As Mark W Jones explains the best way to walk the Snickelways is to start at Bootham Bar, The oldest bar / gate into York.

Snickelway 1

The first one was a real surprise as I had walked down Petergate many times passed the Hole in the Wall pub, not realising there was a snickelway just to the left of the sign. And it lead to a quiet square with a super view of York Minster

Snickelway 2

Just around from the first alleyway is Dean's Court, which kind of counts as a Snickelway, either way it is a super sanctuary right next to the Minster

Snickelway 3

The next stop was the National Trust property - the Treasurer's House. Again, I had passed this building many times (on my way to the old Archbishop's palace for Zen sits), but I had never gone in there (despite being a NT member). Even tough the Snickelways book says do not stop the walk (and suggests going back later), I decided that this was the time to check it out and I was impressed. So after about 1/2 hour wandering around the rooms and talking to the very helpful NT guides there, I continued with the walk with snickelway 3:

This is the view from around the corner rom the snickelway to Ogleforth (called chapter house street). This non descript street was once the main Roman route (Via Decumana) to the NE.

Snickelways Introduction

It all began at Waterstones bookshop

I visited Waterstones for a coffee and cake (actually Eton Mess which was superb, and the coffee was good aswell). The beauty is that you are allowed to pick up any book and read it over the cup of coffee before returning it - but as the till lady said that is a dangerous ploy as most likely you will buy the book - which is what of course I did:

Snickelways of York by Mark W Jones (9th edition!)

or on wiki as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickelways_of_York

Website for Snickelways