While travelling to Coventry for our coach trip to Warwick and Cotswolds, are coach driver suddenly decided that Banbury was a good place to stop for a couple of hours. I was excited because the architecture and the yellow stone used for building cottages was unlike any I had ever seen in the UK yet. And I was hoping for some nice surprises hidden in the town.
This is the Banbury cross and this was where the coach driver dropped us. And we were left without any good directions about where to go and what all is there to see. A couple of hours is not enough to do a detailed exploration of a place so some guidance would have helped.
This statue is called "Fine Lady on the White Horse" after the English nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" that refers to one of the crosses destroyed by Puritans in 1600. (courtesy Wikipedia). Of course, we did not know all this then. But the statue looked important. And so we clicked a picture.
And the weather was absolutely fantastic, by the way. Blue skies with a flimsy layer of clouds. Nice and sunny and very unusual for the UK. The tower belongs to the St. Mary's Church.
One of the pretty yellow buildings. Isn't it charming? Most of these buildings are almost a century old. It is an interesting combination of traditional and modern because many of these buildings have technologies such as automatic doors.
The St. Mary's Church up close. Yellow just like the buildings surrounding it, the church blends in as well as stands out in the surroundings. The current building was erected in the 1790s.
At this church, I went through the first Churchyard ever. The atmosphere is quiet and you are constantly aware that you are walking over the ground under which lie those who have passed over. It is a sobering feeling and makes one feel one with the elements. This particular stone caught our attention. The writer of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift's words were inscribed on it.
Hannah and Kelsey in the Churchyard. Kelsey was constantly on the phone. We judged her throughout the trip.
One of the Gravestones in the Church. It looked old and we were not able to read the words inscribed on it.
The stop at that time seemed questionable but considering that we got our first experience of the yellow stone streets. And on looking back, I'm glad we stopped there.
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