They emerged from the harrowing slums of one of the world's great cities, malnourished youths clad in bizarre fashions. They were the hooligans of their day and for thirty years they held the streets of Manchester and Salford in a grip of fear, fighting pitched battles in a brutal war for supremacy. They delighted in names like the Bengal Tigers and the Little Forty, but to a horrified press and public they were simply 'the scuttlers'.

The Gangs of Manchester traces the history of the scuttlers from the Rochdale Road War of 1870-1 through the antics of such infamous fighters as the Bellis brothers of Salford and John Hillier, the self-styled King of the Scuttlers, until the demise of the gangs at the turn of the century. And it vividly brings to life the a little known youth phenomenon that still resonates today.