Where I live.
Blogtober day eight, and today's post is about where I live.
I live in a town called Banbury in Oxfordshire England, UK.
You may have heard of the nursery rhyme Ride a cock-horse (My Children loved it)
'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 hear music wherever she goes.'
The singer Gary Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) famous in the 70's and early 80's is from Banbury, (although us Banbury folk wish he wasn't) you'd most likely know his song I'm the leader of the Gang, (The paedo gang, eh Paul? Sick man) he used to drink in a pub called the Horse & Jockey which is near the Banbury cross. He was arrested in 1997 for downloading child pornography, and sexual abuse offences and then again in 2006 & 2015 for sexual abuse and rape (what a nice man, eh?) I think he's probably more famous for the offences he has made and being on the news so much.
We are much more happy with having Sir Patrick Stewart live near by (actor) and Jo Joyner (actor) as well as some well known tv presenters.
 |
| Gary Glitter. |
We are much more happy with having Sir Patrick Stewart live near by (actor) and Jo Joyner (actor) as well as some well known tv presenters.
We have our own type of cake called the Banbury cake, which go way back to the 16th century and they are still produced to this day, just not as popular as they once were. Jamie Oliver has a recipe for them, although his are not the right shape, they are more more oval shaped.
Banbury originally had more crosses, including The High Cross, The Bread Cross and the White Cross.These were all destroyed in the 1600's by the Puritans.
The current Banbury Cross was erected in 1859 to celebrate Queen Victoria's eldest Daughter Victoria Princess Royal's Marriage to Prince Frederick of Prussia.
In 1914 the Cross was installed with three statues of Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V to celebrate the coronation of the latter in 1911.
 |
| Banbury cross. There is also a statue of a fine lady upon a horse behind the cross. |
The cross has also had many different arms of the town throughout its history, as well as the town's motto which is 'Dominus nobis sol et scutum' (The Lord is our sun and shield)
The cross is situated at the top of the High street, the intersection to four major roads which lead to Oxford, Warwick, Shipston on Stour, and the High street which leads down to the towns shops & shopping centre (Castle Quay)
Banbury had a Castle (many moons ago) which was built in 1135 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. It was later confiscated by King Steven in 1139, and returned later that year, and remained mostly by Bishops until 1547. The castle was demolished in 1648, the stones from the castle were later used to build houses around the town.
Our town still has a lot of its historic buildings, some old pubs in town too, which are very popular to tourists and residents due to keeping up with their history within the pub. I love going to The old Reindeer inn during winter for some lunch and sitting near the fireplace to warm up after doing some Christmas shopping, it's a lovely pub.
I wish I could buy this one.
St Mary's church is a popular tourist spot for our town, it's no surprise really as it's beautiful inside and out. It was built in the 1790's and was actually built to replace the original medieval church which was damaged in the English civil war. My daughter Georgina sang for a charity event in this church last year, it was an amazing night and all the children from Georgina's school & all the other schools did so brilliantly.
The People's Park is one of our favourite places to go for a family walk and have fun in the playground, in the summer all the primary schools in Banbury plant flowers in the parks garden, each year is a new theme, this year it was superhero. They have a local radio station there to play music and the children play games and have a really fun day (and very tiring day) then the schools efforts are judged and pick a winner and the winning school wins a trophy.
The park is used for the hobby horse festival and family days for charity which are always really good days out.
There is a war memorial in the people's park which gets covered in poppies for rememberence day.
Banbury is a beautiful town and I love it, although visitors often complain of the smell from the coffee factory, (it can really smell bad sometimes) but the centre of town is always really pretty with its hanging baskets of flowers and big planters filled with flowers.
This town used to be very popular with its cattle market, people would come from as far as Scottland to sell their cattle, from 1925 until 1998.
If you're ever near by pop into Banbury (for tea and cake, Banbury cake of course) and check it out for yourselves, I am sure you would have a lovely day and our once small town keeps on getting bigger with its new retail park, plus the soon to be built restaurants and the multi plex cinema.
Well I think I've said enough about where I live, I thought I'd add in some of its history to make it more interesting. I hope I haven't bored you instead!
If you have read this far, Thank you you so much.
Ta ta for now
J x
The cross is situated at the top of the High street, the intersection to four major roads which lead to Oxford, Warwick, Shipston on Stour, and the High street which leads down to the towns shops & shopping centre (Castle Quay)
 |
| Banbury's coat of arms. |
Banbury had a Castle (many moons ago) which was built in 1135 by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. It was later confiscated by King Steven in 1139, and returned later that year, and remained mostly by Bishops until 1547. The castle was demolished in 1648, the stones from the castle were later used to build houses around the town.
Our town still has a lot of its historic buildings, some old pubs in town too, which are very popular to tourists and residents due to keeping up with their history within the pub. I love going to The old Reindeer inn during winter for some lunch and sitting near the fireplace to warm up after doing some Christmas shopping, it's a lovely pub.
I wish I could buy this one.
 |
| One of the Tudor houses that is left, I love this one. |
St Mary's church is a popular tourist spot for our town, it's no surprise really as it's beautiful inside and out. It was built in the 1790's and was actually built to replace the original medieval church which was damaged in the English civil war. My daughter Georgina sang for a charity event in this church last year, it was an amazing night and all the children from Georgina's school & all the other schools did so brilliantly.
 |
| St Mary's church. |
The People's Park is one of our favourite places to go for a family walk and have fun in the playground, in the summer all the primary schools in Banbury plant flowers in the parks garden, each year is a new theme, this year it was superhero. They have a local radio station there to play music and the children play games and have a really fun day (and very tiring day) then the schools efforts are judged and pick a winner and the winning school wins a trophy.
The park is used for the hobby horse festival and family days for charity which are always really good days out.
There is a war memorial in the people's park which gets covered in poppies for rememberence day.
 |
| The war memorial. |
 |
| People's park in Autumn is beautiful. |
 |
| My Children love playing on the gym equipment more than at the play ground. |
Banbury is a beautiful town and I love it, although visitors often complain of the smell from the coffee factory, (it can really smell bad sometimes) but the centre of town is always really pretty with its hanging baskets of flowers and big planters filled with flowers.
This town used to be very popular with its cattle market, people would come from as far as Scottland to sell their cattle, from 1925 until 1998.
If you're ever near by pop into Banbury (for tea and cake, Banbury cake of course) and check it out for yourselves, I am sure you would have a lovely day and our once small town keeps on getting bigger with its new retail park, plus the soon to be built restaurants and the multi plex cinema.
Well I think I've said enough about where I live, I thought I'd add in some of its history to make it more interesting. I hope I haven't bored you instead!
If you have read this far, Thank you you so much.
Ta ta for now
J x
Comments