No-one expected the riots to start outside London, until they did. In an internet chat room, a worried American asked her British friend if she was safe. "Yes, I'm miles away in Wolverhampton." She assured her, then quipped, "But it is slowly spreading out of Tottenham. At this rate, the riots will reach here in about a fortnight." It was tongue-in-cheek; a joke. But within an hour, BBC News was reporting trouble in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester and Wolverhampton.

For the majority of the people in those cities, watching the live footage and seeing it out of their windows, shock turned to outrage. Police warned them to stay off the streets. But when calm descended with the new day, they emerged from their houses with a fierce determination of their own: to secure and clean up their own home areas. This was the anti-riot in full force.

The Rioting in Wolverhampton

The first to respond to the rioting, on the evening of August 9th, 2011, were the West Midlands police. Worried residents filmed from their homes, above the shops in Wolverhampton's city centre. The footage, which circulated on YouTube, showed a cat and mouse tactic between lines of police and 60-100 rioters. Shouting and cat-calls filled the historic area around Lichfield Street. Officers charged and chased gang members, most of them hooded or masked, up towards the 6th century Saxon cross. This is the gardens of St Peters Collegiate Church, where Button Gwinnett, one time President of Georgia and a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence, married his Wulfrunian wife. It is also the site of a monastery, built by Lady Wulfrun, which founded this city. Wulfrun's High Town. Wolverhampton.