Scuttlers

Scuttlers were members of neighbourhood-based youth gangs (known as scuttling gangs) formed in working-class areas of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding townships during the late 19th century. It is possible to draw parallels with the London street gangs of the 1890s, whose behaviour was labelled hooliganism.

A scuttler is a lad, usually between the ages of 14 and 18, or even 19, and scuttling consists of the fighting of two opposed bands of youths, who are armed with various weapons. — Alexander Devine, Scuttlers and Scuttling: Their Prevention and Cure. (Manchester, 1890)

Gangs were formed throughout the slums of central Manchester, in the townships of Bradford, Gorton and Openshaw to the east and in Salford, to the west of the city. Gang conflicts erupted in Manchester in the early 1870s and went on sporadically for thirty years, declining in frequency and severity by the late 1890s.

Scuttling gangs were territorial fighting gangs, as reflected in their names; the "Bengal Tigers" came from the cluster of streets and courts off Bengal Street in Ancoats. Most gangs took their names from a local thoroughfare, such as "Holland Street" (Miles Platting) or "Hope Street, Salford".