Town in Oxfordshire, England
Banbury
Shakespeare used Banbury cheese as an insult, Puritans tore down its crosses, and its spiced currant cakes are still baked today.
Key information
- County
- Oxfordshire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- The nursery rhyme cross, Banbury cakes, a Puritan past and the Oxford Canal
- What locals are called
- Banburians
- Famous people
- William Whately, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, Queen Victoria
- Football clubs
- Banbury United, nicknamed the Puritans
About Banbury
The cross that fell and the cross that rose
Everyone knows the line about a fine lady upon a white horse, with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes. Banbury is the town it was written about. A version of the rhyme was printed around 1744, and children have been chanting it ever since. The cross in the rhyme is long gone. Banbury had medieval crosses, but the town's Puritans regarded them as idolatrous, and around 1600 they pulled them down. The stone cross you see today went up in 1859. It marked the marriage of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, to Prince Frederick of Prussia. So the town's best-known landmark is a Victorian wedding souvenir. A statue of the fine lady on her horse stands nearby, bells and all.
The town so Puritan it became a punchline
Banbury's strict religious reputation was famous enough to reach the London stage. Ben Jonson put a Banbury man, Zeal-of-the-Land Busy, in his comedy Bartholomew Fair. Busy is a pompous, food-obsessed Puritan, and audiences knew exactly what town he stood for. Shakespeare took a swipe too. In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Slender is mocked as thin as Banbury cheese, and Bardolph calls someone a Banbury cheese as an insult. The town's preacher William Whately, a leading Puritan voice in the early 1600s, helped build that reputation. It lives on in football: Banbury United are nicknamed the Puritans.
Why a pastry made Banbury famous
Banbury cakes are not cakes in the sponge sense. They are oval, flaky pastries packed with currants and spices, and they were famous by the 1600s. Recipes were being published by the early 17th century, and the pastries travelled far beyond Oxfordshire. They are close cousins of the Eccles cake, but Banburians will tell you theirs came first and are more elongated. A good one should be crisp on the outside, sticky inside and sprinkled with sugar. Banbury once had a name for its cheese and ale as well, but the cake is the survivor, and it is still baked in the town.
A castle besieged and a canal that runs through the shops
Banbury was a Royalist stronghold in the Civil War. Its castle was besieged twice and finally surrendered to Parliament in 1646. Soon afterwards it was pulled down, which is why there is no castle to visit now. The next era of the town's story was written by water. The Oxford Canal arrived in the 1700s and carried coal, goods and later holidaymakers. Tooley's Boatyard, established in 1778 when the canal reached Banbury, still works beside the canal and has a dry dock that remains in use. The canal now passes right through the Castle Quay shopping centre, so you can watch narrowboats glide past the shop windows.
From livestock market to motorway junction
Banbury grew up as a market town, and the cattle market was one of the biggest in the region until it closed in the late 1990s. The weekly market and the old Michaelmas fairs gave the town its bustle. Then industry arrived. An aluminium works opened in 1931, and the Spencer corset factory gave the local football club its first name, Spencer Villa. The club became Banbury United in 1965. The M40 and fast trains to London Marylebone have made Banbury a commuter hub, and it has expanded rapidly. It is now one of Oxfordshire's biggest towns, with plenty of new homes and a lot of history, from Puritan crosses to Victorian pastries.