One of the most enduring nursery rhymes in English history is centred on the Oxfordshire town of Banbury. The rhyme, first published in 1784, is familiar to generations of children and adults. She shall have music wherever she goes. But which Banbury Cross does the rhyme refer to?

Aside from acting as a point of sale for bakers and butchers, the Bread Cross was a focal point for the distribution of bread to the poor of Banbury on Good Friday. The White Cross stood at the meeting of West Bar Street and Beargarden Road, at the entrance to the borough of Banbury. It was first recorded in 1554.

Read about the pretty market town of Banbury on Oxfordshire, made famous by the poem Ride a Cock Horse… The nursery rhyme, ‘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...” has made Banbury one of the best-known towns in England.

Banbury Cross was erected in 1859 to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, to Prince Frederick of Prussia. The sponsors of the Cross wished for a monument to be installed that would honour the occasion, and also serve as a “lasting credit and honour to the town”.