A meandering stroll along Finkle Street in search of a meaning

From time to time I am asked if I can explain the origin of the name which, according to some enquirers, appears to have no direct link with any particular locality.

In fact, the name is very ancient and comes from the Old Norse meaning elbow, bend or even dog-leg. There was also an old Danish word, vincle, which meant a corner, angle or short, winding street.

It follows that most of our local Finkle Streets will have a sharp corner somewhere along their length, or perhaps they would have had such a feature in their early days. Maybe some of the streets have since been widened or straightened, so that the finkle has been removed, even if the name has survived.

One of the explanations for the name dates to the time when towns grew rapidly from small communities, with the inhabitants wanting to walk to work as quickly as possible. They speedily built cottages, with no thought of planning consent or similar restrictions, and the back garden walls of some of these new homes adjoined the grounds of earlier houses whose long walls fronted the highways.

As time progressed, many of those garden walls, or yards as they were sometimes known, either fell or were knocked down. The absence of boundaries meant people took advantage of them as short-cuts. The resultant routes rarely followed a straight line, nor did they link directly with one another, so a network of narrow lanes was eventually formed, always with sharp corners or dog-legs. And the old word finkle was used to describe them.

Later, some of the sharper corners of walls and buildings were removed to allow horse-drawn vehicles to pass along and examples of this can still be seen in some of our narrow streets.

I have come across a theory that all Finkle Streets emanate from the market place, but I know of no authoritative research to confirm that, even though many such streets can be seen in such a position. Yet another theory is that all Finkle Streets originated in fish markets.

The famous Edmund Bogg, in his book The Land of the Swale, puts forward this theory, adding that the name comes from the Danish or Flemish merchants who used a vehicle called a vincle. He wrote that this was a type of wagon or stall on wheels which contained merchandise such as fish or food, although some versions did carry wool, drapery and other goods, but the purpose was to convey these items to market.

I am sure that many of our regional Finkle Streets have retained their sharp bends and I am aware of some which lead towards the market places of local towns as far apart as Leeds, Selby, Knaresborough, Richmond and Thirsk. I am told there also used to be a Finkle Street in York.

Another theory is that Finchale Priory, on a bend in the River Wear a few miles north of Durham, is also named from a similar source. The local pronunciation of Finchale is finkle and, in keeping with the reason for the names of Finkle Streets, it does stand near a series of sharp bends in the river.

Finchale Priory dates to the 12th century when St Godric first built his lonely hermitage here, then a Benedictine priory was established on the site in 1196. It was never a major religious house, being chiefly used as a rest home for the monks of Durham Cathedral. Like so many other priories and abbeys, it was dissolved as a prelude to the Reformation.

Another place which can sound very similar to finkle is Finghall, a small village in Wensleydale between Bedale and Leyburn.

Although some experts believe this village name comes from Finn's Halh, finn being the nickname for a woodpecker, it is perhaps odd that the second element halh does mean a corner, recess or secret place.

Down the centuries, Finghall has endured more than a dozen names, with one suggestion being that it is named after an Irish person called Finn, and it does appear that the first element of the name is that of a person, probably an Anglian. The name fin appears in other English place names, but it does seem that halh, now shown as hall, means a corner or nook.

Another finkle theory is that it may be associated with the little snail-like sea creature called a winkle, whose shell is almost as crooked as a Finkle Street. I might add that in Holland a winkle, pronounced vinkle, is a shop. That's very like the old Danish wheeled stall called a vincle, so perhaps all Finkle Streets had shops? Or (ahem) corner shops?

A short visit to Beverley reminded me of its links with this region. One is that the 12th century font in Beverley Minster is made of Frosterley marble taken from the River Wear. Another is Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, whose family association with Richmond and Croft on Tees is now part of the literary history of the area. Few realise the important part that Beverley played in Carroll's creative thinking.

Evidence of this link can be seen in the splendid St Mary's Church which stands majestically just inside Beverley's North Bar. Such is the splendour of this building that many confuse it with Beverley Minster at the opposite end of the market place. There is no doubt this is one of the finest parish churches in England, having been founded in 1120.

The interior deserves a careful tour for there is much to see and admire, but prominent upon the arch which leads into St Michael's chapel is the carved stone figure of a rabbit dressed in human clothes and carrying a staff. This is known as the pilgrim rabbit because it is dressed in the manner of a pilgrim in bygone times. The church authorities are so proud of this rabbit that it has been adopted as St Mary's church logo.

It appears that Lewis Carroll spent time in Beverley when visiting friends and used this rabbit as the inspiration for the famous white rabbit which features in Alice in Wonderland. Another theory is that the figure inspired the Mad March Hare, but, to my knowledge, there is very little evidence to support either of these tales. Nonetheless, it is a nice story and could easily be true.

Another curious feature of this church is the roof of the chancel. It has 40 brightly coloured panels dating from 1445 and each contains the representation of a former king of England. Latin inscriptions provide details of his name, the length of his reign and the place of his burial.

To fill the entire roof, some legendary kings have been included, but from Egbert (802-839) the list is historically correct. The last king in the series was Henry VI, whose image is third from the east on the north side, and an inscription says the work was done in the 23rd year of his reign, 1445. The roof was carefully restored in 1863 and again in 1939, when the image of King George VI was substituted for the legendary King Lochrine.

A published history of St Mary's is available, highlighting the dramas of this church, including the collapse of its tower in 1520, a disaster which killed several people. Buried within the church is Robert Fisher, the father of St John Fisher who was executed for his Catholic faith in 1535, but this brief history, like so many others of its kind, totally ignores the effect of the Reformation on this fine building.

Tomorrow, July 22, is the feast day of St Mary Magdalen, when maidens from the North York Moors would mix a potion of gin, rum and red wine with treacle, honey and sugar. They performed various rituals before drinking this concoction, after which each was supposed to dream about her future husband.