![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3_JS86551497.jpg\")
A photograph of Rochdale Road in Collyhurst taken in 1911(Image: Manchester Local Image Collection at Manchester City Council)<\/p>\nIt was the first time that magistrates in Manchester had encountered the word \u2018scuttling\u2019 and in the years and decades that followed, they grew very tired of hearing the termA photograph of Rochdale Road in Collyhurst taken in 1911(Image: Manchester Local Image Collection at Manchester City Council)<\/p>\n
It all started, bizarrely, around 700 miles away – with the Franco-Prussian War. France declared war on Prussia in July 1870 – primarily in an attempt to reassert its dominant position in continental Europe.<\/p>\n
The conflict\u2019s far-reaching implications for the balance of power in Europe meant it received extensive coverage in the British press. And, in Manchester, some of the war\u2019s most avid followers were schoolboys.<\/p>\n
They began to re-enact scenes from the war on the streets of New Cross, a district between the slums of Angel Meadow and Ancoats, and a series of violent battles and skirmishes ensued. The press – referencing the on-going conflict on the continent – would go on to dub these street fights the \u2018Rochdale Road War\u2019.<\/p>\n
Andrew Davies, who wrote about the episode in his book The Gangs of Manchester, told the M.E.N.: \u201cProtestant boys pretended to be Prussian forces. Catholic boys rallied in their hundreds to oppose them, marching behind a paper flag onto which was painted a single word: ‘French’.<\/p>\n
![\"Prussian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_Siege-of-Paris-1871.jpg\")
Prussian troops within the ruins of Fort Issy near Versailles at the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War on 1 February 1871(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys referred to gang-fighting as \u2018scuttling\u2019. The word was new to Manchester\u2019s magistrates. They were to grow tired of it in the decades that followed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protestant boys attending the Lancasterian School on Marshall Street, between Rochdale<\/a> Road and Oldham<\/a> Road, were the initial recruits for the \u2018Prussian forces\u2019. Catholic boys from the nearby St Joseph\u2019s pretended to be the French.<\/p>\n On Sunday 2 October, 1870, between 300 and 400 of the \u2018French\u2019 forces gathered in an alleyway off Miller Street in Angel Meadow armed with sticks along with swords and \u2018pistols\u2019 fashioned out of wood. Marching behind their paper flag, they made their way to Rochdale Road – where they were met by an equal number of their \u2018Prussian\u2019 opponents.<\/p>\n The several hundred schoolboys launched into battle after blank cartridges were fired to signal the start of the hostilities – but their hand to hand combat had barely begun when four police officers charged into the fray.<\/p>\n The two armies scattered but the City of Manchester police managed to make eight arrests – boys aged between 10 and 18. They were hauled before magistrates at Manchester City Police Court the following morning and each fined 10 shillings and sixpence – with the threat of 14 days behind bars for non-payment.<\/p>\n However, by the following month, the Rochdale Road War had intensified. Police received reports of disturbances in New Cross and Angel Meadow – where the warring opponents were launching volleys of stones at each other on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n Officers\u2019 inquiries suggested that, while the skirmishes could be explained in part by differences in nationality and religion – English versus Irish as much as Protestant versus Catholic – a major contributing factor appeared to be that the boys simply loved fighting.<\/p>\n Superintendent Charles Godby, of Manchester police\u2019s B Division, would later tell a court that he did not think the \u2018war\u2019 was caused by \u2018any feelings of religious animosity, but solely from a love of mischief, and what the boys considered fun\u2019.<\/p>\n For around a year, battles raged across the slums of Rochdale Road and Oldham Road – spreading north into Collyhurst and east into Ancoats. As the scuttling spread, older boys joined in in increasing numbers – and they began using knives, iron swords and even firearms.<\/p>\n Severe injuries followed – not only to the warring factions but also to passers-by. Damage was also done to property – with scuttlers turning to vandalising mills as a diversion from the on-going battles.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the landlord of the Mechanic\u2019s Arms pub in Henry Street, off Oldham Road in Ancoats, complained how the constant outbreaks of scuttling in the area had cost him much of his trade.<\/p>\n Manchester police cracked down on stone throwing and arrested more than 150 boys for the offence between October 1870 and March the following year. Notices were posted around Rochdale Road and Oldham Road by order of the Chief Constable, warning anyone caught carrying out the practice would be \u2018liable to a penalty of 40 shillings\u2019.<\/p>\n Given that many working men earned below 15 shillings a week – and the fines would likely be paid by the boys\u2019 fathers – it was hoped the penalty would encourage parents to join forces with the police to put an end to the stone throwing nuisance.<\/p>\n However, by the autumn of 1871, the so-called \u2018juvenile terrorism\u2019 being wreaked by scuttlers showed no sign of easing up – so Manchester police and the city magistrates decided to form a special squad of officers to clamp down on the disturbances.<\/p>\n On the weekend of 21-22 October, 1871 – almost exactly a year after the first battle in the \u2018Rochdale Road War\u2019 – the special squad broke up a disturbance on Whitely Street in Collyhurst – making 21 arrests, with boys aged between 12 and 16.<\/p>\n Magistrate Charles Rickard, sentencing the boys in court two days later, lectured them before passing down his judgement – saying he hoped Manchester Corporation would soon give him the power to order them to be publicly flogged.<\/p>\n Without that though, he imposed the maximum punishment of a 40 shilling fine – with a penalty for non-payment of six weeks in prison. This left the parents of the boys in tears at the prospect of the children spending such a long time behind bars, The City News reported.<\/p>\n The police and magistrates must have hoped that the sentences would finally act as a deterrent to the warring factions of scuttlers – with 12 and 13 year olds languishing in jail for weeks because their parents couldn\u2019t afford the fines. But these hopes were soon dashed.<\/p>\n New gangs started to appear – including in Red BanK in the slums of Deansgate<\/a>. And while the Franco-Prussian War was formally declared over in May 1871, with Prussia the eventual victors, scuttling would continue to blight Manchester\u2019s streets for years to come.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_Scuttler_BG_expand.jpg\")
A picture of 20-year-old scuttler William Brooke from the archive of the Greater Manchester Police Museum(Image: GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE MUSEUM)<\/p>\n![\"Tenements](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_JS86551494.jpg\")
Tenements on Rochdale Road in Collyhurst, near Moore Street, in 1905(Image: Manchester Local Image Collection at Manchester City Council)<\/p>\n![\"Houses](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_JS86551491.jpg\")
Houses around Rochdale Road, Nicholas Street and Angel Street in 1903(Image: Manchester Local Image Collection at Manchester City Council)<\/p>\n![\"Attack](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_Attack-of-the-Prussian-cavalry-on-the-French-infantry-in-the-battle-at-Saint-Quentin-on-January-19.webp\")
Attack of the Prussian cavalry on the French infantry in the battle at Saint Quentin, France, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870\/1871(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty)<\/p>\n