Ride a cock horse To Banbury Cross. What's that all about

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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.

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Banbury, in north Oxfordshire, has a population of about 40,000. It's a market town and in the middle of the town, on a roundabout, there's a great cross.

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Q.� The one mentioned in the nursery rhyme

A.� No.

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Q.� Then why tell me about it

A.� Hang on, I'll get to that. The current cross was built in Horsefair 1859 to mark the marriage of Queen Victoria's oldest child, Vicky (Princess Royal) to Prince Frederick of Prussia. The original cross had been demolished some 250 years before.

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Q.�� So what was that cross commemorating

A.� Actually, it's getting a bit complicated. There were three of them. In the Middle Ages there was: White Cross in West Bar; High Cross, or Market Cross, in Cornhill; and Bread Cross in Butchers Row.

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Q.� So what happened

A.� Blame the Puritans. By the end of the 16th Century, Banbury acquired a Puritanism reputation - and these nonconformists abhorred all religious images. By 1598 they removed the town's maypole - which smacked of pagan revels - and by 1601 the high cross had vanished. All three crosses disappeared by 1621. William Knight of Banbury's town corporation called for the High Cross's destruction. Two masons levered up the stones with iron bars, and the images were smashed by Henry Showell, while crying out 'God be thanked, their god Dagon is fallen down to the ground.'

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Q.� Who's Dagon

A.� A half-man, half-fish god worshipped by the Philistines, if you must know. It was one of the carvings on the cross.

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Q.� Any other witness reports

A.� Yes, the Jesuit priest Anthony Rivers, who wrote in 1601: 'The inhabitants of Banbury being far gone in Puritanism, in a furious zeal tumultuously assailed the cross that stood in their market place, and so defaced it that they scarcely left one stone upon another.'

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Q.� So they left no trace

A.� None, although plaques have been placed near their likely locations.

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Q.� What about the modern cross It's quite a beauty.

A.� Yes, although not without controversy. The Princess Royal married Prince Frederick, later Emperor Frederick III and known as Fritz. Their son Willy became Kaiser Wilhelm III, who ruled Germany in the First World War. (Click here for a feature on his kinky goings-on.) In 1859, many Banbury townsfolk were against the new cross for religious and political reasons. A local newspaper thundered: 'We give enough money to the monarchy in taxes as it is.' However, it was built and - as you say - it's a beauty. It's of Neo-Gothic design, 52ft 6in tall and originally had two gas lamps to stop people riding into it.

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Q.� And what are the figures upon it

A.� Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V. They were added after the coronation of George V in 1911

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Q.� What about the fine lady

A.� Lost in time, but one 19th-Century story tells of a bride called Matilda and her boyfriend Edward, a jealous knight. Her long-lost brother appears and Edward believes him to be a rival lover. He attacks the stranger, but is mortally wounded. To save Edward's life, Matilda is told by a monk to walk around the cross at midnight. It works. It's also make-believe.

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By Steve Cunningham

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