Mark Odegard writes: >It refers to the ditch alongside a highway. A web search >conclusively demonstrates that this is in active usage. Oddly, >'barrow ditch' seems undocumented by the dictionaries. < Isn't this probably just a variant on the more familiar "borrow pit" ? ...of which the OED says: the pit from which material is taken to form an enbankment. A. Murie