Drive a Hire Car to Banbury Cross

Monday 8 December 2003. I was on my way down to Maidenhead and driving down the M40 saw a sign for Banbury around 5:00pm in the evening.

So, as I'm feeling peckish, why not stop off to see if there's anywhere to have a meal and have a look at the famous Banbury Cross of nursery rhyme fame?

In the end I didn't find anywhere to eat. 5:00pm is a funny time - high street cafes are closed or closing and many pubs are not serving food until 6:00pm or later. And it was a cold night - far too cold to be knocking about for what could be a couple of hours.

I almost got excited here but they were cleaning up inside before bringing in the tables and chairs from outside! Roughly halfway between Birmingham and London, Banbury sits on the River Cherwell on a crossing of two ancient tracks. The Salt Way, now a bridle path to the south and west of the town was used for - three guesses - transporting salt. Banbury Lane, starts close to Northampton and is still used as a modern road. It passes along Banbury's High Street then carries on towards the Roman Fosse Way at Stow-on-the-Wold. Banbury was mentioned in the Domesday Book and had obviously been there a while even at that time as remains of round houses have been discovered dating back to the Iron Age around 200 BCE.

The town hall. Built in 1854, it was the first town hall on the present site but the fourth that Banbury had had in total. The first dated from c1590, the second, a timber construction from 1633 and finally a brick hall of 1790. This still exists as it was dismantled and moved to Lower Cherwell Street where it still stands, although open arches used for markets have been bricked up and it is now a residential building.

Here is what I had come to see. Banbury Cross. Not particularly old and certainly far from ancient, it was erected to celebrate the wedding between Queen Victoria's first-born daughter (also Victoria) to Prince Frederick of Prussia in 1859. Previously the town had several older crosses that those historical self-righteous spoilsports, the Puritans, demolished in 1600.

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