A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Carnforth. Moot How. 



Chadderton, nr. Manchester. Mound. 



Cuerdley, nr. Warrington. Cromwell's Bank. 



Farleton, in Hornby with Farleton. Mound. 



Halton, nr. Lancaster. Site of Camp, High- 

 field. 

 Hapten, nr. Accrington. Castle Clough. 

 Heapey, nr. Chorley. Pickering Castle. 



Lancaster, 17th century. 

 Lathom, 17 th century. 

 Liverpool, 17 th century. 



Manchester, 17th century. 



Preesall with Hackensall, nr. Fleetwood. The 



Mount. 

 Preston, 17th century. 

 Prestwich, nr. Manchester. Castle Hill. 

 Prestwich, nr. Manchester. Rainshough Hill. 



Walmersley cum Shuttleworth, nr. Bury Castle. 



Steads. 

 Warrington, 17 th century, 

 Wigan, 17th century. 

 Worsthorne with Hurstwood, or. Burnley. Small 



square work, 'Ringstones' on Hambledon 



Moor. 



(Class Z) 



Though all were not defensive works, it is well to include in an account 

 of local earthworks the long ' dykes ' often found running in a more or less 

 continuous hne across country for many miles. Some of these long earthen 

 banks and excavated ditches were originally constructed for military purposes ; 

 others were designed as boundaries between either peoples or tribes or 

 properties. Where only fragments of short length now remain, it is 

 difficult to decide for which of these purposes the works were originally 

 made. 



RusHOLME (2 J miles south-south-east of Manchester). — The best pre- 

 served portions of the ancient dyke now known as Nico Ditch are to be 

 seen along the southern boundary of this parish, between Slade Lane and the 

 Gore Brook. The total length of the dyke is over 5 miles ; it runs on the 

 south-east side of Manchester, midway between there and Stockport, roughly 

 in a direction from north-east to south-west ; building operations have, how- 

 ever, obliterated the greater part of it. 



The work consists of a ditch, which is now often hardly to be dis- 

 tinguished from an ordinary field division, and a bank, formed of the soil 

 dug out of it ; the latter is always upon its north or Manchester side." The 

 course of the dyke is as follows : — Beginning at the south end of Ashton 

 Moss, in Ashton-under-Lyne, it ran in a south-west direction to Debdale 

 Clough ; thence it curved slightly northwards and ran in a fairly straight line 

 by Holland Moor House (crossing near where the canal and the two railway 

 lines now intersect), on to the south side of the old Yew Tree Cottage, and 

 across the Stockport Road to Midway House ; thence straight on again (now 

 cut by the railway line) across Slade Lane, south of Slade Hall, and on 50 

 yards south of Birch House ; thence across Whitworth Lane and Wilmslow 

 Road, north of Ashfield, and so to the Gore Brook. 



A noteworthy feature in connexion with it is that, for a great part of its 

 course, it forms the boundary between ancient townships. Beginning at its 

 eastern end, the portion in Ashton parish does not serve such a purpose. But 

 beyond Debdale Clough it divides Gorton on the north from Denton on the 

 south ; and further on it separates Gorton on the north from Reddish on the 



" A good section of the ditch b to be seen jnst west of Wilmslow Road, by Piatt Unitarian chapel ; it is 

 here 1 2 ft. wide from edge to edge and 3 ft. deep, but there is no rampart remaining. 



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