Whilst organised crime was not invented in the Victorian era, the 19th century did see the emergence of the first modern gangs as we would understand them today. During this time almost every city in the UK had some form of well-known gang: the original Hooligans of London, the Penny Mobs of Glasgow, and the Birmingham Boys of…well Birmingham.
But Manchester and Salford were home to perhaps the earliest examples of modern gang culture, the ‘Scuttlers’.
For people with an interest in Manchester’s Victorian heritage, the Scuttlers are a well-known part of the city’s legend, and several incredible books have been written on the subject. However, for many, the Scuttlers are likely more unknown. So, in the proud tradition of Horrible Histories, we are here to answer some of the most popular questions about the Scrappy Scuttlers!
Who are the Scuttlers?
The Scuttlers were a collection of youth gangs that emerged in the mid-19th century in what is now central Manchester. In 1833, child labour laws were introduced which limited when children and young adults could work in factories.
With more free time, little access to education, and with their parents out each day working long hours, thousands of young adults were left to wander Manchester. These bored youths would keep themselves entertained with increasingly daring acts of petty crime, forming small gangs in their local neighbourhoods.
Soon enough, dozens of these local gangs had sprung up in Manchester, such as the Bengal Tigers based on Bengal Street, Ancoats, and the Meadow Lads based in Angel Meadows.
What does being a ‘Scuttler’ mean?
A ‘scuttler’ is a label for any young Mancunian who engaged in group acts of petty crime, public disruption and, most often, fights with other rival groups in what were often called a ‘scuttle’. Unlike the more money-focused activities of 20th century gangs, scuttlers were motivated mostly by boredom and local loyalty.
Scuttler gangs were formed around specific neighbourhoods in Manchester, rather than by ideologies or ethnic ties which often characterised modern organised crime. As such, scuttler gangs had loose memberships held together by a specific place and time, with dozens of gangs breaking up and forming across the city each year as people moved around.
Scuttler gangs were widespread across Manchester and Salford, and by the 1880s it was common for the public and the police to identify these gangs as ‘scuttlers’. However, despite the popularity of the term ‘scuttler’, it is not an official crime and when arrested, these young adults were never formally charged with ‘scuttling’. As a result, it is hard for historians to look back at Victorian records and identify who was a ‘scuttler’, though there are some telltale signs if you were to see one.
How could you spot a Scuttler?
If you were to go back in time to 1860’s Manchester, you could spot a scuttler by with distinctive look. Pointed clog shoes, bell-bottomed sailor’s trousers, peaked caps, and bright silk scarves displaying gang colours became an increasingly common uniform across scuttler gangs. Completing their distinguishing look was their haircut, a short back and sides and a long left-sided front fringe. Female members of scuttler gangs would wear a matching style of clogs, striped shirts and coloured shawls.
Joseph Robinson and Harry Garside, arrested in 1907 and 1908, were unlikely to have been scuttlers, but do show off what a scuttler would have looked like, including scarfs, caps, and distinct ‘donkey fringe’.
How did the police deal with Scuttlers?
As scuttler numbers grew in the late 19th century, they became increasingly hard for the police to manage. Scuttler gangs were numerous and spread across Manchester’s s slums and were likely stick together in large groups as they moved about the city looking for fights.
The police forces in Manchester and Salford faced being both outmanoeuvred and outmanned by swarms of young adults. Manchester City Police’s most famous policeman, Jerome Caminada, would comment on the danger that fearless scuttler gangs posed to the police, pointing out that when the police interfered with fights between scuttlers, both gangs would end up working together against the bobbies.
As a response, the 1870s and 1880s saw targeted police activity and increased presence in areas of high scuttler activity, notably Ancoats and Salford, in an effect to discourage public fighting.
What happened to the Scuttlers?
Scuttler numbers peaked in the 1880s and 1890s, but by the 1900s they were virtually non-existent. There are two broad reasons why scuttlers disappeared.
First, scuttlers were mostly held together by their loyalty to their local neighbourhoods, often central city slums and as these disappeared so did the gangs. Central Manchester saw significant urban renewal in the late 19th century, including the introduction of sweeping public health ordinances for urban housing, and the creation of both the ship canal and the Thirlmere Aqueduct in 1894, both helping to rid the city of its slums.
Second, scuttlers were originally formed because large group of youths in and around Manchester found themselves without work or education to occupy their time, with ‘scuttling’ becoming their escape from boredom. In the 1890s new forms of entertainment become popular and accessible to the disenfranchised young adults of Manchester, such as boy’s or lad’s social clubs, in particular early local football teams. Perhaps the most famous case of this was the creation of the St Marks Football Club in West Gorton in the 1880s for the express purpose of pulling young adults away from gang culture, and which would eventually become Manchester City Football Club.
As the 20th century began, the scuttlers slowly disappeared as young adult became workers and family men. Their brand of neighbourhood-based, ‘violence for entertainment’, culture would be replaced by more ambitious, organised, and financially motivated criminal gangs which we are more familiar with.