Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse.
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.
-Rhyme from Middle Ages

The cross standing in Banbury today is not the one mentioned in the rhyme. In the Middle Ages there were three crosses.

A White Cross in West bar
A High or Market Cross in Cornhill
A Bread Cross in Butchers Row

Of the three, the High Cross and was regarded as one of the chief architectural features of the town at that time. At the end of the 16th Century, Banbury acquired a reputation for Puritanism. The Puritans disliked all religious images and any thing which resembled paganism (Fun time over!). In 1598 they demolished the towns maypole and by 1601 had destroyed the high cross. By 1621 all three crosses had disappeared.

The destruction of the High Cross was encouraged by William Knight of the town corporation. 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 Dagonis fallen down to the ground"

"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" - Anthony Rivers (Jesuit priest), 1601

Though no visible remains of the original Banbury crosses exist today, plaques have been placed near their likely locations.

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