“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend" ……….. stories from Manchester’s past

It was the editor Maxwell Scott, in John Ford’s film, the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance who said “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."*

Which would forever confirm the popular belief that it had been Senator Ranse Stoddard who as a young attorney had shot the very unpleasant gang leader, Liberty Valance, when in reality it had been Tom Doniphon.

Of course John Ford and countless other directors had already been portraying the “Wild West” as something it wasn’t for decades long before the 1962 film.

And in doing so they were only building on cheap novels and newspaper accounts which thrilled the readership of the eastern side of the USA with stories of Cowboys, Indians and the US Cavalry.

Today of course we know that the Indians were the Native Peoples, that amongst the cowboys there were plenty of ethnic groups from former slaves, to ex Chinese railway workers and failed Swedish farmers, and that some at least of the men who made up the US Cavalry were guilty of genocide.

So, for no particular reason other than I like the film, I nominate the Roman wall in Castlefield for an award, having heard two earnest students telling some of their friends that this was indeed the original wall of the Roman fort, and in so doing setting off a new Manchester myth.

Along with the one that Castlefield with its elaborate viaducts and waterways was in fact an early attempt by the City Fathers in the late 19th century to create a tourist attraction to rival Venice.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; the Roman wall, 2002, and a scene of Castlefield, 2006, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Maxwell Scott, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance