Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, &c./Part 1/Gorton, Reddish, and Nicker Ditch
GORTON, REDDISH, AND THE NICKER DITCH.
According to a tradition noted in Greswell's MS. collections for a history of Manchester—"The inhabitants of Manchester are said to have behaved themselves valiantly against the Danes when they landed about A.D. 869." Whitaker says, "The house upon the Gore Brook challenged the denomination of Gore-ton." An old MS. formerly in the possession of the Rev. Joshua Brookes, A.M., chaplain of the College Church, Manchester, gives the following tradition:— "There is now to be seen in Denton, Gorton, Birch, &c., a ditch called Nicko or Micko, which (tradition says) was made in one night, from Ashton Moss to Ouse [Hough's] Moss; such a number of men being appointed as to cast up each the length of himself, in order to entrench themselves from the Danes, then invading England. The land on one side the ditch is called 'Danes' to this day, and the place in Gorton called 'Winding Hill' is said to take its name from the Briton's winding or going round to drive off the Danes. The township of Reddish (anciently written and still locally pronounced by the peasantry. Red-ditch), adjoining to Gorton and Denton, is said to take its name from the water in this ditch after the engagement being red." Such are the older traditions. Mr John Higson, of Droylsden, who has given considerable attention to the subject, supplies us with the existing traditions of the neighbourhood. He says that the above appears substantially correct (i.e., to agree with current tradition), except as to the hill in Gorton, which old residents call "Winning Hill," and the name is so written in old title-deeds. The tradition is, that the great battle was "won" here, and that the name was given to commemorate the happy event, which unbound the necks of the Saxons from the thraldom of the Danes. During the battle the brook running through Gorton (by traditional etymology Gore-town or the Blood-town) is said to have been filled with human gore, and was thence styled "Gore Brook," which name it has certainly borne five centuries and a half. The vale running from Gorton to Audenshaw is "the Dane Wood." There are also "the Danes" in Gorton; "Dane Head" and "Dane Shut" in Audenshaw. The two former are supposed to have been occupied by these invaders prior to the final conflict; and, after that engagement was over, a fugitive is said to have been decapitated at the third, and another to have been shot at the latter. The probable etymology, however (adds Mr Higson), is "dane, dene, or den," a valley with a stream running through the midst of it. The formation of the Nicker Ditch was apparently anterior to the general cultivation of the land through which it passes, as it forms the meare or boundary of various townships. He says this is known in the locality as "Th' Nickoditch," and thinks its etymology is of Danish origin; for according to Scandinavian mythology Odin assumes the name of Nickar, or Hnickar, when he acts as the destroying or evil principle. In this character, and under this name, he inhabits the lakes and rivers of Scandinavia.
[The editor has felt bound to give the ancient traditions and those still current in the neighbourhood, with the interpretation suggested by an intelligent resident well acquainted with the localities and their present names. But he must add that he sees no sufficient authority or reason for these traditional etymologies of the local names at the head of this parish. As to Gorton, Whitaker is probably right in deriving its name from the brook; but Gor (Anglo-Saxon) not only means gore or blood, but also, and with more probable significance here, dirt or mud. It also denotes a triangular plot of land; and either of these meanings is more likely to be the true one than that of a supposed bloody battle with the Danes. Mr Higson has correctly given the more probable etymology for the places pronounced Dane and Danes; for in Lancashire generally, dean or dene is pronounced dane, and these places are denes or hollow places, some of which are to be found in Worsley (the Deans or Danes Brow, &c.) The wood, the head, and the shut or shoot (A.S. sceot, pronounced sheot), are all applicable to a little dene, hollow, or valley. And so the invading Danes may disappear from these etymologies; and without them, what becomes of the battle? So as to Reddish, so far from being the red ditch, the etymologies of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are Re-dich or dyche, i.e., the reed or reedy ditch. As to the Nicko or Nicker ditch, the old MS. quoted above gives us an alternative, "Micko," which we think guides to the true etymology. In deeds of the fourteenth century this was always called the Michel, Mikel, or Muchil Diche (from the Anglo-Saxon micel, mucel, pronounced mickle, muckle), and, of course, meaning the great ditch. There was an estate in the neighbourhood called the Milk Wall Slade, and this name may have been a corruption of Mickle, or Muckle, into Milk-wall; but there is not the slightest warrant in old deeds and charters for the Nicker or Nicko Ditch; so that the Scandinavian myth must depart with the Danes themselves.]