canch

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A small quantity of corn in the straw put into the corner of a barn; a small mow.
• noun A short turn or spell at anything.
• noun A trench cut sloping to a very narrow bottom.
• noun A certain breadth in digging or treading land.
• noun In coal-mining, that part of the floor or roof of a gangway which has to be removed in order to equalize the grade, when there has been a slight fault or break in the strata.