What is a forty foot?

[GOLDEN OLDIE 15]

Does anyone know the origine of the term'forty foot' Is it a kind of gennel or am I getting it mixed up!!!!

[lazarus 68]

Does anyone know the origine of the term'forty foot' Is it a kind of gennel or am I getting it mixed up!!!!

 

It was a drain that was fished in Lincolnshire, probably forty foot wide.

[Guest makapaka]

It's a nick name for a gennel.

[trastrick 866]

It is short for 40Ft General Right of Way.

 

On the new estates we had 8Ft and 12ft General Rights of Way.

 

Commonly called gennels, a coruption of the "general".

[stpetre 12]

I heard that it was, in fishing matches, River Trent etc that the anglers had to be forty feet away from each other. Could be totally wrong on that tho'.

[pattricia 574]

Thought it was a fishing place

[stpetre 12]

Does a Gennel have a definite length or even a roof ? I recall the gennel that ran behind Burngreave school that ran from Malton Street to Melrose Road. and it's still there.

Edited September 3, 2017 by stpetre
add

[hillsbro 28]

Does a Gennel have a definite length or even a roof?...

I don't know of any Sheffield gennels with roofs, but the Oxford English Dictionary mentions them - here is the definition. The term "forty foot" is indeed concerned with rights of way as trastrick noted - here is the O.E.D. entry. In North Lincolnshire, gennels are called "tenfoots". Edited September 4, 2017 by hillsbro

[hillsbro 28]

In Grimsby, gennels are called eightfoots, unlike the rest of Lincolnshire.

[beechnut 10]

There are Forty Foot drains, well-known to anglers, in various parts of Eastern England - see here - but the original meaning of "forty foot" was concerned with rights of way, as trastrick and hillsbro noted.

[choogling 14]

the forty foot pub on wordsworth ave had some fishing related stuff on the pub signpost.

[fatrajah 10]

There is a road in Bridlington called "Forty Foot".