Banbury Cross

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross,

To see a Fine Lady upon a White Horse,

With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,

She shall have music wherever she goes.

Banbury is a market town in on the edge of the northern Oxfordshire Cotswolds and this well known children’s rhyme has been enjoyed for generations. It has been suggested that the 'Fine Lady' of the nursery rhyme may have been Lady Godiva or Elizabeth I, but it is more likely that it was a local girl who rode in a May Day procession. The original cross was pulled down at the end of the 16th century. The present cross was erected in 1859 to celebrate the wedding of the then Princess Royal to Prince Frederick of Prussia- nothing to do with the rhyme!

A bronze statue of the Fine Lady stands at the junction of South Bar Street and West Bar Street, a short distance to the south-west of the cross. The statue was erected in 2005 and was designed by Artcycle Ltd, cast in bronze and mounted on a plinth of local Hornton stone. The horse is modelled on a Welsh Cob with the Fine Lady depicted as the “Queen of the May”, incorporating many symbols of spring such as spring flowers. There are thirteen in her crown to represent the ancient months of the year. The bells on her feet are interpreted as both musical bells and by seven bluebells, (representing the days of the week) on her toes and she is dropping petals from her raised left hand.