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A crinkle crankle wall (also known as a crinkum crankum, serpentine, ribbon or wavy wall) is an unusual type of garden wall. 

The crinkle crankle wall economises on bricks because it can be made just one brick thin. If a wall this thin were to be made in a straight line, without buttresses, it would easily topple over. The alternating convex and concave curves in the wall provide stability and help it to resist lateral forces.

Church Lane in Lymington has two excellent examples of crinkle crankle walls. The wall at Elm Grove House is the oldest crinkle crankle wall in Lymington, thought to have been constructed in the early 19th century, possibly by Hanoverian soldiers when they were in exile in Lymington from the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) in the adjacent house.

A little futher down on the opposite side of the road, the wavy wall was built by the author Dennis Wheatley (1897-1977) who lived at adjacent Grove Place. The wall survived after the house was demolished in 1969.

All Saints Road in Lymington has a shorter example of a crinkle crankle wall. 

See also: Novelist Dennis Wheatley and his Lymington Crinkle-Crankle