Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady on a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes
 
It's two years  since we came to Banbury.  There are more empty shops in the town but it still has a busy feel about it, especially on a Thursday night.  My sources tell me that the night to go clubbing is now Thursday. By moving binge night from the weekend hangovers are cleared up whilst at work on Friday leaving the weekend clear for other things.

 As we approached the town from Cropredy on Wednesday there was much earth-moving being undertaken which looked like preparation for a major road or building project

We understand that, in fact,these are flood defences being built by the Environment Agency.  I had never really associated Banbury with flood risk but do remember friends who live in nearby Helmdon suffering floods which made the national news a few years ago.

We had lunch with Julian & Ros in Helmdon yesterday and they recall a narrowboat ending up in a field during those floods.

I wonder how that looked when the waters receded! 






There are fewer boats around than on our last visit and we have moored opposite the Fine Lady bread factory for a change but will probably move into Castle Quay in the town centre  in a day or two.

We made the pilgrimage to Banbury Cross and discovered the nearby statue of the Fine Lady on a White Horse which somehow we had overlooked on previous visits.

I think it is quite a fine statue too -
cast in bronze and mounted on a plinth of local Hornton stone.

The sculptor has not felt constrained by the literal as these details illustrate.  
This has been interpreted to include bluebell flowers on her toes.

By one foot of the horse is this little frog.  The meaning eludes me but it is quite fun.

It is suggested that the rhyme's refers to the riding of Hobby Horses by children and this theme has been stylised in the traffic roundabout where the  current Banbury Cross stands. ( there were three crosses originally at different points in the town and the current one is not the original)

Each year there is Hobby Horse Festival on the first weekend in July.