The Banbury Lady
By Elaine Samuels – c August 2012
V1
All the right roads lead to Banbury, get your horses, meet us there
At the crossroads find your answers, ask the lady with long hair.
Beneath necklaces
of silver and hands bedecked with gold
She is just a pretty fair maid - offering justice, brave and bold.
She is
blessed by common people, rides a white horse thro’ the town.
She gives them hope to live for gath’ring praises and renown.
CHORUS
With rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes
She shall have music, wherever she goes
V2
As she passes flowers open, there is magic in the air
Hear the sound of distant music, see the sunlight shine her hair.
Pretty toes
twinkle with small bells, tied to tell she passes by
But at the cross there stands a stranger, tall and thin with twinkling eye.
In his
hands he plays a whistle, with his lips he pipes a tune
The sounds weave in swift enchantment and the music makes her swoon.
CHORUS
With rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes
She shall have music, wherever she goes
Jig
V3
Behind the man there is a motion, the tripping jumping fall of feet
For where he passes people follow, where he reaches strangers meet.
The long procession heads for Halford, now to meet the people there
For they are curs-ed with an evil they hope the piper can repair.
The Halford
fields are full of large rats eating crops and spreading fear.
The people
beg the piper rid them of the rats and they’ll pay dear.
Jig
V4
The rodents serve under their rat King, whose vast and lothsome, hairy frame
Was often spotted in the river, the conduit whence the rat hoard came.
So upon the 8th of August the piper struck a haunting tune
And up the winding Stour river headed north, beneath the moon.
The excited rat hoard followed, with the rat King in plain sight
Until they reached the river’s source at Wychbury Hill, upon midnight.
CHORUS
With rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes
She shall have music, wherever she goes
V5
Here the piper trilled a long tune - truly
marvellous and shrill
Which with a mighty earthquake cracked a hole into the hill.
The rats then
poured through eager to be first into this nest
But then the hole collapsed ‘till just a ring of stones was left.
Returning
then to Halford, to take his fee – as told
The frightened people cowered – for they had not any gold.
CHORUS
With rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes
She shall have music, wherever she goes
V6
The piper getting angry was about to curse the town
When the fair lady from Banbury began to calm him down
She said in place of gold the town could offer him their cheese
A year of Stinking Bishop would surely him appease.
Indeed he
smiled and took her hand – for Banbury they did leave
And now every year in August, Halford folk give up their cheese.
Wychbury Hill
Wychbury Hill is one of the "Clent Hills", which is where the source of the River Stour can be found. It is situated of the A456 Birmingham Rd., at Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of the West Midlands and Worcestershire. It is also the site of "Wychbury Ring" - an Iron Age Hill Fort - and the "Wychbury Obelisk" and is much beloved of pagans, with the site containing a 28-tree yew grove. The name "Wychbury" is not however connect to the word "witch" but derived
from the Saxon subkingdom of the "Hwicce"
The Inspiration
The Banbury Lady - the fine lady on a white horse - was quite likely - in my opinion - to have been Lady Godiva, who was said to have ridden naked through the town of Coventry (not too far north of Banbury). Lady Godiva was said to have been unhappy about how the poor people in her area were being taxed and to have asked her Lord to reduce or stop the levies. He was said to have agreed provided she did a penance, which in those days sometimes
meant walking through the town in a shift / petticoat / nightgown - hence the legend of her parading naked through the town. The Lord was said to have instructed the townspeople not to look at his Lady while she was doing the penance and it struck me that by tying bells to her feet, this would help people know when she was nearby and when they should avert their gaze. I therefore believe that this "Lady of Banbury" is a bit of a heroine to the people and so I have made her a bit of a heroine
in the song.
The Story of the Halford Rats
The old and new bridges over the River Stour at Halford
At eight minutes past eight on August 8th, Halford villagers process down to the old bridge to throw cheese down to a legendary rat!
The legend of the Rat of Halford dates back to 888AD. The Saxon village of Halford, which lies on the Fosse Way, is said to have suffered terribly from rats attcking its crops around harvest time. In order to try and stop the destruction, it's said villagers decided to offer the rats alternative foods to quell their hunger, eventually settling on cheese. Whether this worked or not is unclear but in recent
yars, the villagers have resurrected the tradition, held annually at the same time and date, in honour of the year the legend first began. Each year more and more people come along to the cheese throwing ceremony (some from as far away as the US) to process across the bridge by torchlight and throw their cheesy offerings to the rat. Those who throw their dairy products to the rat don't just satisfy his mythical hunger; the throwers are also said to be blessed with eternal life ... well - eternal until the next
year's ceremony!
In 2012, I took part in the Halford rat ceremony, which had a distinctly Olympic flavour, and it was videoed by my husband, Clive. You can re-live it from the You Tube video. I can recommend watching it - as it is both quirky and funny, with the (slightly tipsy seeming) organisers re-living their version of Saxon story with a short play, whilst balanced precariously on small tables!