Nico Ditch: A Historical Earthwork

• Nico Ditch is a 6 mi (9.7 km) linear earthwork.
• It stretches between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford in Greater Manchester, England.
• The earthwork was created between the 5th and 11th centuries.
• It served either as a defensive fortification or a boundary marker.
• Surviving sections of the ditch measure 4–5 yards (3.7–4.6 m) in width and up to 5 ft (1.5 m) in depth.
• A portion of the earthwork holds status as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Etymology

• The ditch's earliest mention is in a charter from 1190 to 1212.
• It details land grants in Audenshaw to Kersal Cell monks, labelled as "Mykelldiche" and magnum fossatum, Latin for "large ditch".
• The name Nico (or Nikker) became common in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Nico might come from the Anglo-Saxon Hnickar, a water spirit.
• More likely, Nico is a changed form of Mykelldiche, where micel means "big" in Anglo-Saxon.
• An alternative origin for Nico is the Anglo-Saxon verb nǽcan, which means "to kill".

Course

• The ditch runs for 6 mi (9.7 km) from Ashton Moss to Hough Moss, east of Stretford.
• It traverses Denton, Reddish, Gorton, Levenshulme, Burnage, Rusholme, Platt Fields Park, Withington, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
• The ditch crosses four metropolitan boroughs in Greater Manchester.
• It marks boundaries between Stockport and Manchester, also Tameside and Manchester.
• The ditch reaches Denton golf course, with a section now under Audenshaw Reservoirs, built in the late 19th century.
• The ditch might have stretched west beyond Stretford to Urmston

History

• The earthwork dates to between the 5th century and the Norman conquest in 1066.
• The earthwork's purpose is speculated to be a defensive fortification or boundary.
• It may have defined a 7th-century boundary for Anglo-Saxon expansion or a boundary between Mercia and Northumbria in the late 8th or early 9th century.
• Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex battled for control of North West England during the early medieval period, along with the Britons and Danes.
• The ditch has served as a boundary since at least the Middle Ages.
• Legend says the inhabitants of Manchester built Nico Ditch in a single night as protection against Viking invaders in 869–870.
• Each man was assigned an area to dig and build a bank as tall as himself.
• 19th-century folklore suggests a battle between Saxons and Danes occurred at the ditch.
• This battle supposedly gave the names to Gorton ("Gore Town") and Reddish ("Red-Ditch"), but historians dismiss this idea.
• The names Gorton and Reddish actually mean "dirty farmstead" and "reedy ditch."
• Antiquarians and historians have shown interest in the ditch since the 19th century.
• Much of the ditch has been built over.
• From 1990 to 1997, the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit excavated parts of the ditch in an attempt to determine its age and purpose.
• Investigations revealed that the bank north of the ditch is of 20th-century origin.
• The ditch has a U-shape, suggesting it served as a boundary marker rather than a military defense.
• The project concluded that the ditch was likely a boundary marker.

Preservation

• The ditch is still visible in sections, measuring 4–5 yards (3.7–4.6 m) wide and up to 5 ft (1.5 m) deep.
• A 330-yard stretch through Denton Golf Course and a section in Platt Fields Park are the most well-preserved remains.
• A 150-yard segment of the ditch in Platt Fields was protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1997.
• The rest of the ditch is not protected.