Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK, Manchester) a young street thug.

1873		Lloyd’s Wkly Newspaper 23 Mar. 4/5: He was twice attacked by bands of ‘scutlers’ who infested the streets of Salford.
1884		Burnley Exp. 27 Sept. 7/3: Being a cowardly lot, the scuttlers always operate in gangs.
1892		Blackburn Standard 25 June 6/5: A youth who is known to the police as a ‘king’ of scuttlers, and who has sevred a long imprisonment for scuttling, was charged with disorderly conduct.
1893		Daily Tel. Oct. n.p.: Might it not be possible to teach manners, and to enforce their observance, even by means of the rod and the cane, at the Board schools? It is in those expensive seminaries, we apprehend, that the majority of the juvenile ‘scuttlers’ are educated [Ware].
1897		Manchester Eve. News 19 Nov. 4/6: Cunningham, who was said to be a scuttler, was charged [...] with stealing a quantity of caps.
1999		(ref. to late 19C) Indep. on Sun. Culture 15 Aug. 1: Shadowy reminders of the scuttlers on turn-of-the-century street corners.