maybe we have got a new bread of the east manchester scuttlers gang going around on the canals
<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttlers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttlers</a>
this sounds like the crowd on the new islington wharf (ashton canal)
They generally wore a uniform of brass-tipped pointed clogs, bell-bottomed trousers, cut like a sailor's ("bells" that measured fourteen inches round the knee and twenty-one inches round the foot) and "flashy" silk scarves. Their hair was cut short at the back and sides, but they grew long fringes, known as "donkey fringes", that were longer on the left side and plastered down on the forehead over the left eye. Peaked caps were also worn tilted to the left to display the fringe.[1] The scuttlers' girlfriends also had a distinctive style of dress consisting of clogs, shawl, and a vertically striped skirt.[3]