taken 12 years ago, near to Banbury, Oxfordshire, England
Ride a cock horse - Banbury, Oxfordshire
"Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross, to see a fine lady....". As to who she was history is silent, but there are a number of possibilities, all of them so far unproven. It has been suggested that it was a part of some Maytime ritual. A public appeal raised the £180,000 cost and it was sculpted in Stoke on Trent, cast in the Welsh village of Llanrhaedr ym Mochnant and a frog stuck on in Birmingham - all the way to Birmingham for a frog? Some have called it "Fine lady on a white elephant", however be that as it may the statue was unveiled by the Princess Royal on 27th April 2005 - actually a pair of Army Cadets did the unveiling so it is said. The group of people in this photo were Geographers in Banbury for a day celebrating the 8th birthday of our Geograph website. Source:BBC Oxford. Time taken 3.42 pm GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).
Modern signs on mediaeval buildings often fall between stools. Whilst this artist eschewed making 'Ye Olde' into 'The Old'; he had clearly lost interest by the time he came to what should have been the 'Reindeere'.