Tetbury sisters get involved in alleyway naming debate (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Tetbury sisters get involved in alleyway naming debate

11:35am Tuesday 26th June 2012 in News By Ian Craig

FOUR sisters from Tetbury have taken it upon themselves to get involved in local politics at a very early age.

An application was recently made to rename the alleyway by the Close Hotel to Twizzle Walk, but sisters Maya, 13, Hannah, 10, Pippa, 7 and Eva, 5, didn’t think much to the idea and took it upon themselves to write to the Town Council suggesting alternative ideas.

In the letter, which is printed in the letters page of this week’s Standard, the girls, who live in nearby Mount Pleasant, call the idea “uninspiring”.

“We googled 'twizzle' and all we could find was a reference to Jamie Oliver's campaign against Turkey Twizzlers or a move carried out in ice skating,” it reads.

They suggested the alley should be renamed either Book Ends as the alley leads to the towns library, or Diagon Alley after the street where boy wizard Harry Potter buys his school supplies.

“If nothing else we think you should involve the people or better still the children of Tetbury to come up with a suitable name for the alley, the letter finishes.

Their mum Karina explained the girls had seen the notice of the application and immediately started coming up with alternative ideas for the name.

“They’re all avid readers, which I think is where their ideas came from,” she said.

Tetbury mayor Cllr Rob McCorkell explained the quirky history behind the idea for the new name.

“One of the early residents of that area was from the midlands, and in that region a twisty path is known as a ‘twistle’, and in the Gloucestershire accent that sounds like ‘twizzle’,” he said.

“Since then it became known as ‘The Twizzle’ to a lot of residents. “I believe the first resident to call it this was a lady called Mary Wenham.”

Any suggestions or comments for the naming of the alley can be submitted to the Town Council