Another chance to hear about the Gangs of Manchester, May 22 at the Post Box Cafe

“At a QUARTER to ten on the night of Sunday 3 August 1890, a gang of youths from Harpurhery in north Manchester went to war.  Armed with knives and heavy-buckled belts they left their regular stamping ground and marched for a mile and half towards the heart of the city’s slums.”*

This is just one of the incidents reported in the Gangs of Manchester, which describes in some detail "the story of the Scuttlers, Britain's First Youth Cult."

It was written by Andrew Davies who was drawn into the gangs which operated across Manchester & Salford in the late 19th century while pursing another  research project.

In the course of interviewing people who lived in the centre of Salford he was repeatedly told stories about the youth gangs who had terrorised parts of the city in the late 19th century.

Bit by bit it became clear that these gangs existed across both Salford and Manchester.  They had a distinctive uniform called themselves Scuttlers and some at least operated on the margins of petty crime.

They were extremely territorial defending their patch and taking their gang rivalry into other neighbourhoods.

And on May 22 Mr Davies is giving a talk on the Social Conditions of Victorian Manchester & Salford at the Post Box Cafe.**

If you are lucky you will be rewarded with a fine description of the conditions in our twin cities in the last quarter of the 19th century as well as an explanation for the rise of the Manchester gangs.

* The Gangs of Manchester, Andrew Davies, Milo Books, 2008

** The Post Box  http://www.thepostboxchorlton.co.uk/  0161 881 4853

Pictures; James Brown, William Henry Brookes, John Wallace from the cover of the book Gangs of Manchester, and Flat Iron Market, Salford, 1894,Samuel Coulhurst, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, m59571