Nico Ditch
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Nico Ditch (or occasionally Mickle Ditch) was an earth fortification than ran between Ashton under Lyne and Stretford in Greater Manchester. It was constructed during the period 890–910.
Between 800–920, the Danes invaded Cheshire and Lancashire. They destroyed the village of Manchester, before they were finally beaten, south of the Mersey. This made the construction of a fortification necessary to hold back the invading Danes.
Today only small parts of the ditch remain, but since renewed interest in local history in Victorian times, it has been possible to gauge an idea of the scale. The legends from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles say that Nico Ditch was completed in a single night, each man having a set area of the ditch to construct. Each man was required to dig out the ditch and then throw up so much of the rampart as was equivalent to his own height. The ditch was five feet wide and from rampart to the bottom of the ditch, 16 feet.
The ditch is on the southern side and the mound/rampart on the northern side, thus protecting Manigcestre (Manchester) from incursion from the south. Both Stockport and Oldham were Danish settlements, as can be seen in the peculiarities of local dialect. For instance, a common local word is ‘’Skrikin’’ (Danish – Skrieken) for crying.[citation needed]
The name appears to derive from Hnickar, a water spirit who seized and drowned unwary travellers. However, this in itself is a Danish word/tradition; the ditch being built by Anglo-Saxons. An alternative derivation is that Nico comes from Noecan the Anglo-Saxon verb to kill.
Nico ditch stretches six miles from Ashton-under-Lyne to Urmston. It passes through Denton, Reddish, Gorton, Levenshulme, Burnage, Rusholme, Fallowfield, Withington, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Stretford. Crossing four Metropolitan Boroughs of present day Greater Manchester.
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[edit] References
- Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society – Transactions III (1885) p190
- Speake, R – The Story of Hazel Grove and Bramhall – 1964 p13
- David Hall, Colin Wells and Elizabeth Huckerby - The Wetlands of Greater Manchester - Lancaster University 1995 ISBN 0-901800-80-5
p163(Hough Moss)
