Nico Ditch: History and Purpose

• Nico Ditch is a 6 mi (9.7 km) long linear earthwork in Greater Manchester, England.
• It stretches between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford.
• It was constructed between the 5th and 11th centuries.
• The ditch's original purpose was as a defensive fortification or boundary marker.
• Short sections of the ditch remain visible today.
• 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 portion of the earthwork has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Etymology

• The earliest reference to the ditch appears in a charter from 1190 to 1212.
• In this charter, it is called "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), or more likely from Mykelldiche.
• Micel is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "big" or "great".
• An alternative origin for Nico is the Anglo-Saxon verb nǽcan, meaning "kill".

Course

• The ditch runs 6 mi (9.7 km) from Ashton Moss in Ashton-under-Lyne to Hough Moss, east of Stretford.
• It passes through Denton, Reddish, Gorton, Levenshulme, Burnage, Rusholme, Platt Fields Park, Withington, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
• It traverses four metropolitan boroughs in Greater Manchester.
• Nico Ditch aligns with sections of the Stockport/Manchester and Tameside/Manchester borough boundaries.
• It extends as far as Denton golf course.
• A section lies beneath Audenshaw Reservoirs, built in the late 19th century.
• The ditch may have originally extended west to Urmston.

History

• The earthwork was built between the 5th century (end of Roman rule) and the Norman conquest (1066).
• Possible uses include a defensive fortification or an administrative boundary.
• It could have been a 7th-century boundary for Anglo-Saxon expansion.
• Alternatively, it may have been a boundary between Mercia and Northumbria in the late 8th or early 9th century.
• During the early medieval period, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex fought for control of North West England against Britons and Danes.
• The ditch has served as a boundary since at least the Middle Ages.
• Legend says the ditch was built in a single night by Manchester inhabitants to defend against Viking invaders in 869–870.
• Supposedly, each man was assigned an area to dig, with the bank's height matching his own.
• 19th-century folklore claimed a battle between Saxons and Danes occurred at the ditch.
• This battle was said to have given Gorton ("Gore Town") and Reddish ("Red-Ditch") their names.
• Historians dismiss this origin, as Gorton means "dirty farmstead" and Reddish means "reedy ditch".
• Antiquarians and historians have studied the ditch since the 19th century.
• Much of the ditch's course has been built over.
• Excavations by the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit between 1990 and 1997 aimed to determine the ditch's age and purpose.
• The investigations revealed that the bank north of the ditch is of 20th-century origin.
• The ditch's U-shape suggests it served as a territorial boundary, rather than a military defense, which usually had V-shaped ditches.
• The project concluded the ditch was likely a boundary marker.

Preservation

• Despite weathering, short sections of the ditch remain visible.
• These sections are up to 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 a section in Platt Fields Park are the best-preserved remains.
• 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.