Nico Ditch: History and Significance

• Nico Ditch is a 6 mi (9.7 km) long earthwork in Greater Manchester, England.
• The ditch is located between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford.
• It was created sometime between the 5th and 11th century.
• The Nico Ditch may have been used as a defensive fortification or a boundary marker.
• Short sections of the ditch are still visible.
• In the areas where it remains, the ditch is 4–5 yards (3.7–4.6 m) wide and up to 5 feet (1.5 m) deep.
• A portion of the earthwork is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Etymology

• The earliest reference to the ditch is in a charter from 1190 to 1212, granting land in Audenshaw to the monks of the Kersal Cell.
• In this document, it's 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, but is likely a corruption of Mykelldiche.
• The Anglo-Saxon word micel means "big" or "great".
• An alternative origin of Nico is from nǽcan, an Anglo-Saxon verb meaning "kill".

Course

• Nico Ditch stretches between Ashton Moss in Ashton-under-Lyne and Hough Moss, east of Stretford.
• It passes through Denton, Reddish, Gorton, Levenshulme, Burnage, Rusholme, Platt Fields Park, Withington, and Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
• The ditch crosses four metropolitan boroughs of present-day Greater Manchester.
• It aligns with the boundaries between Stockport and Manchester, and Tameside and Manchester.
• A section of the ditch is underneath the Audenshaw Reservoirs.
• The ditch may have stretched west beyond Stretford, to Urmston.

History

• Constructed between the end of Roman rule in Britain (early 5th century) and the Norman conquest (1066).
• The original purpose is unclear.
• Possibly marked a 7th-century boundary for the expansionist Anglo-Saxons.
• It may have been a late 8th or early 9th century boundary marker between Mercia and Northumbria.
• In the early medieval period, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex fought for control of North West England, along with the Britons and the Danes.
• The ditch has been used as a boundary since at least the Middle Ages.
• Legend says the ditch was completed in one night by the inhabitants of Manchester to protect against Viking invaders in 869–870.
• Manchester may have been sacked by the Danes in 870.
• Each man had to dig his section and build a bank equal to his height.
• 19th century folklore claimed a battle between Saxons and Danes occurred at the ditch.
• Supposedly, Gorton and Reddish got their names from this battle ("Gore Town" and "Red-Ditch").
• Historians dismiss this idea; the names come from "dirty farmstead" and "reedy ditch."
• Antiquarians and historians have been interested in the ditch since the 19th century.
• Between 1990 and 1997, the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit excavated sections of the ditch to determine its age and purpose.
• Investigations revealed that the bank to the north of the ditch is of 20th century origin.
• Its U-shape suggests the earthwork was to mark a territorial boundary.
• The project concluded that the ditch was probably a boundary marker.

Preservation

• The ditch is still visible in short sections, despite weathering.
• Sections are up to 4–5 yards (3.7–4.6 m) wide and up to 5 feet (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.
• In 1997, a 150-yard (140 m) segment of the ditch in Platt Fields was protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument; the rest is unprotected.