Nico Ditch: History and Purpose

• Nico Ditch is a 6 mi (9.7 km) linear earthwork in Greater Manchester, England, stretching from Ashton-under-Lyne to Stretford.
• Constructed between the 5th and 11th centuries, it served as a defensive fortification or boundary marker.
• Short sections of the ditch remain visible today, including a 330-yard (300 m) stretch at Denton Golf Course.
• Surviving sections are 4–5 yards (3.7–4.6 m) wide and up to 5 feet (1.5 m) deep.
• A part of Nico Ditch is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Etymology

• The earliest reference to the ditch appears in a charter from 1190-1212, granting land in Audenshaw to the monks of Kersal Cell, referring to it as "Mykelldiche" and magnum fossatum.
• "Nico" (or "Nikker") became the common name in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• The name "Nico" is likely a corruption of "Mykelldiche", where the Anglo-Saxon word "micel" meant "big" or "great".
• An alternative origin for "Nico" is from "nǽcan", an Anglo-Saxon verb meaning "kill".

Course

• Nico Ditch spans from Ashton Moss in Ashton-under-Lyne 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 within Greater Manchester.
• It aligns with boundaries between Stockport and Manchester, and Tameside and Manchester.
• The ditch may have extended further west to Urmston.

History

• The earthwork was built sometime between the end of Roman rule in the early 5th century and the Norman conquest in 1066.
• The ditch may have been a 7th-century boundary for Anglo-Saxon expansion or a boundary marker between Mercia and Northumbria in the late 8th or early 9th century.
• In the early medieval period, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex struggled for control over North West England.
• Legend says the ditch was constructed in a single night by the inhabitants of Manchester as protection against Viking invaders in 869–870.
• Folklore suggested that the towns of Gorton and Reddish derived their names from a Saxon-Dane battle at the ditch ("Gore Town" and "Red-Ditch"), but this is dismissed by historians.
• Historians and antiquarians have studied the ditch since the 19th century, but much of it has been built over.
• Excavations from 1990-1997 sought to determine the ditch's age and purpose.
• The U-shaped profile and the 20th-century origin of the bank to the north suggest it was a territorial boundary marker.

Preservation

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