Hail from York, now that is interesting.

I take it that you mean the street in York with the over-hanging houses and shop fronts called The Shambles. In a way that is probably correct, but in a round about way.

The Shambles is the name of our band. Where we rehearsed on the Isle of Portland, we could hear the audible warning from what used to be called The Shambles Lightship and is now unmanned. There are now (last week saw the last one automated) no manned lighthouses in the UK.

This buoy is guarding a dangerous sandbank called The Shambles, that has claimed many lives.

I think I am right in saying that the street in York is called The Shambles due to the fact that there were at one time a lot of butchers shops there. The meat was displayed on a sloping shelf, known as a 'shamel'.

It is not too difficult to see that a sloping sandbank might also be called a 'shamel' and later become The Shambles?