Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/70

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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 en-