Nico Ditch: History and Etymology

• Nico Ditch is a 6 mi (9.7 km) long earthwork in Greater Manchester, England.
• It stretches between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford.
• The ditch was built between the 5th and 11th centuries.
• It was either a defensive fortification or a boundary marker.
• Surviving parts of the ditch are 4–5 yards (3.7–4.6 m) wide and up to 5 ft (1.5 m) deep.
• A section of the earthwork is a protected Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Etymology

• The earliest reference to the ditch is from 1190-1212 in a charter.
• It was referred to as "Mykelldiche" and magnum fossatum, Latin for "large ditch".
• The name Nico became established in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Nico may come from the Anglo-Saxon Hnickar, a water spirit.
• It is most likely a corruption of Mykelldiche; micel means "big" in Anglo-Saxon.
• An alternative derivation is from nǽcan, an Anglo-Saxon verb meaning "kill".

Course

• Nico Ditch stretches from Ashton Moss (SJ909980) to Hough Moss (SJ82819491).
• It passes through Denton, Reddish, Gorton, Levenshulme, Burnage, Rusholme, Platt Fields Park, Withington, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
• The ditch crosses four metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester.
• It coincides with the boundaries between Stockport and Manchester, and Tameside and Manchester.
• A section is under the Audenshaw Reservoirs.
• The ditch may have extended west beyond Stretford, to Urmston (SJ78299504).

History

• The earthwork was constructed between the 5th century and the Norman conquest in 1066.
• Its purpose is unknown, but it may have been a defense or a boundary.
• It may have marked a 7th-century boundary for Anglo-Saxon expansion.
• Or it may have been an 8th or 9th-century boundary between Mercia and Northumbria.
• Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex struggled for control of North West England.
• The ditch has been used as a boundary since at least the Middle Ages.
• Legend says the ditch was built in one night by Manchester inhabitants against Viking invaders in 869–870.
• Each man had to dig his section and build a bank equal to his height.
• 19th-century folklore says a battle between Saxons and Danes occurred at the ditch.
• Gorton and Reddish were said to have gotten their names from "Gore Town" and "Red-Ditch" from this battle.
• Historians have dismissed this idea; the names derive from "dirty farmstead" and "reedy ditch" respectively.
• Antiquarians and historians have been interested in the ditch since the 19th century.
• Much of the course has been built over.
• The University of Manchester Archaeological Unit excavated sections of the ditch from 1990-1997.
• Excavations were in Denton, Reddish, Levenshulme, and Platt Fields.
• The goal was to determine its age and purpose.
• The investigations revealed that the bank to the north of the ditch is of 20th-century origin.
• The ditch has a U-shape, not the V-shape used in military defenses.
• The earthwork was probably a boundary marker.

Preservation

• The ditch is still visible in short sections, 4–5 yards (3.7–4.6 m) wide and up to 5 ft (1.5 m) deep.
• A 330-yard (300 m) stretch through Denton Golf Course and section in Platt Fields Park are best preserved.
• A 150-yard (140 m) segment of the ditch in Platt Fields was protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1997.
• The rest of the ditch remains unprotected.