Nico Ditch is a six-mile (9.7 km) long linear earthwork between Ashton-under-Lyne and

Stretford Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, south of Manchester city centre, south of Salford and north-east of Altrincham. Str ...

in Greater Manchester, England. It was dug as a defensive fortification, or possibly a boundary marker, between the 5th and 11th century. The ditch is still visible in short sections, such as a stretch in Denton Golf Course. For the parts which survived, the ditch is wide and up to deep. Part of the earthwork is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Etymology

The earliest documented reference to the ditch is in a charter detailing the granting of land in Audenshaw to the monks of the

Kersal Cell Kersal is a suburb and district of Salford in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, northwest of Manchester and was historically part of the county of Lancashire. History Kersal has been variously known as Kereshale, Kershal, Ker ...

. In the document, dating from 1190 to 1212, the ditch is referred to as "Mykelldiche", and a ''magnum fossatum'', which is Latin for "large ditch". The name Nico (sometimes Nikker) for the ditch became established in the 19th and 20th century. It may have been derived from the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

'' Hnickar'', a water spirit who seized and drowned unwary travellers, but the modern name is most likely a corruption of the name Mykelldiche and its variations; this is because the Anglo-Saxon word ''micel'' means "big" or "great", harking back to the early 13th century description of the ditch as ''magnum fossatum''. An alternative derivation of Nico comes from ''nǽcan'', an Anglo-Saxon verb meaning "kill".

Course

Nico Ditch stretches between Ashton Moss () in Ashton-under-Lyne and Hough Moss (), which is just east of

.Nevell (1998), p. 40. It passes through Denton, Reddish, Gorton, Levenshulme, Burnage, Rusholme, Platt Fields Park in Fallowfield, Withington and Chorlton-cum-Hardy, crossing four

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...

s of present-day Greater Manchester. The ditch coincides with the boundaries between the boroughs of

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

and Manchester, and between Tameside and Manchester; it reaches as far as the Denton golf course. A section is now beneath the Audenshaw Reservoirs, which were built towards the end of the 19th century. The ditch may have extended west beyond Stretford, to Urmston ().Nevell (1992), p. 78.

History

The earthwork was constructed some time between the

end of Roman rule in Britain The end of Roman rule in Britain was the transition from Roman Britain to post-Roman Britain. Roman rule ended in different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances. In 383, the usurper Magnus Maximus withdrew tr ...

in the early 5th century and the Norman conquest in 1066. Its original purpose is unclear, but it may have been used as a defensive fortification or as an administrative boundary. It possibly marked a 7th-century boundary for the expansionist Anglo-Saxons, or it may have been a late 8th or early 9th century boundary marker between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria.Nevell (1992), p. 83. In the early medieval period, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex struggled for control over

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

, along with the Britons and the

Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard t ...

. Whatever its earlier use, the ditch has been used as a boundary since at least the Middle Ages. Legend has it Nico Ditch was completed in a single night by the inhabitants of Manchester, as a protection against Viking invaders in 869–870; Manchester may have been sacked by the Danes in 870. It was said that each man had an allocated area to construct, and was required to dig his section of the ditch and build a bank equal to his own height. According to 19th century folklore, the ditch was the site of a battle between Saxons and Danes. The battle was supposed to have given the nearby towns of Gorton and Reddish their names, from "Gore Town" and "Red-Ditch", but the idea has been dismissed by historians as a "popular fancy". The names derive from "dirty farmstead" and "reedy ditch" respectively.

Antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

s and historians have been interested in the ditch since the 19th century, but much of its course has been built over. Between 1990 and 1997, the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit excavated sections of the ditch in Denton, Reddish, Levenshulme, and Platt Fields, in an attempt to determine its age and purpose. Although no date was established for the ditch's construction, the investigations revealed that the bank to the north of the ditch is of 20th century origin. Together with the ditch's profile, which is U-shaped rather than the V-shape typically used in military ditches and defenses, this suggests that the purpose of the earthwork was to mark a territorial boundary. The conclusion of the project was that the ditch was probably a boundary marker.

Preservation

Despite heavy weathering, the ditch is still visible in short sections, which can be up to wide and up to deep. A stretch through Denton Golf Course, and a section running through Platt Fields Park, are considered the best preserved remains.Nevell (2008), p. 39. In 1997, a segment of the ditch in Platt Fields was protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The rest of the ditch remains unprotected.

References

Bibliography