Banbury

Finally the trains were working well enough for me to make it to Banbury, the place I tried to write about the day I ended up going to Reading instead.  I’ve been to Banbury I think three times before, and I thought there was a lot to write about.  This time I was disappointed, but partly because I made a catalogue of errors in my visit.  So here’s how not to visit Banbury.

Date of trip: Saturday 2nd June 2018
Journey time: approx. 20 mins.
Fare: £4.35 (Off-Peak, with 16–25 Railcard)

• Do not attempt to travel on a day the trains aren’t working.  This is not an error from this time, admittedly, but from the previous occasion.  But if you get on a train and it doesn’t set off, and you have to go the opposite direction instead, your day trip has already got off on the wrong foot.
• Do not forget to check the weather forecast when getting ready.  I had too many layers on, and the last time I did that (again, in Reading) I ended up losing my jumper.  Fortunately no further articles of clothing were discarded in the making of this blog post, but I did have to awkwardly carry my wholly-unnecessary waterproof around with me the whole time while tying my jumper around my waist like a schoolkid who doesn’t want to wear uniform.
• Do not head straight for the shopping centre.  Alright, it’s a decent enough shopping centre.  But it’s also pretty similar to most shopping centres, and while it’s better for “ordinary” shops than the centre of Oxford, it’s also not got much you couldn’t have found by going to Reading.  It does have a Gap outlet, but I’m reliably informed that I’m the only person that still shops at Gap, so this may not be of significant interest.
• Do not plan on visiting the Museum without checking what’s on at the Museum.  The town’s civic museum is accessed from the shopping centre from a bridge over the canal.  Last time I was there there was a fantastic free temporary exhibition on political cartoons that I really enjoyed.  This time, however, the temporary exhibition was a cool-looking thing on machines but that you had to pay for, and I didn’t want to pay for anything.  There is a free permanent gallery, but it’s not huge, and probably a bit more interesting if you know Banbury.

• Do not walk up the canal unless you’re planning a long walk.  Canals are pretty, I thought, and I’ve not walked along that, so I could see where it goes.  It is indeed pretty, but unfortunately where it goes (at least if you go northwards) is: firstly, a somewhat improvised path into a business park; and, secondly, outside of Banbury.  I did not plan to go outside of Banbury, so when I finally checked my maps app and realised I was about to cross the bypass, I decided to turn back and head to the other exit point.  On which note…
• Do not take a walk through a business park on a day trip.  On a weekend, it was completely deserted, and I definitely had a sense that I was walking through somewhere that I wasn’t supposed to be.  On a weekday I expect you’d get the same sense of walking through somewhere you’re not supposed to be, except with actual people there to make you feel that more intensely.  Still, at least it led me to a Waitrose, where I could get a free hot drink using my My Waitrose card.
• Do not forget your My Waitrose card if you’re going to try and get a free drink in a branch of Waitrose.  Oops.
• Do not assume walking into suburbia will lead anywhere interesting.  So I did, after Waitrose, make it to the most interesting bit of the town centre.  This is the bit near Banbury Cross, of the nursery rhyme, and indeed there is a statue of a fine lady upon a white horse (installed relatively recently).  But after that I saw a street and decided to go up it, because I thought there might be something up there.  There was not.  There were wide streets with semi-detached houses on them, mostly ordinary, and which I didn’t even take a picture of because I felt conspicuous taking pictures of just ordinary houses.
• Do not assume signposts to a place will not run out before the place you’re trying to get to.  I saw several signs for somewhere called the People’s Park, which sounded interesting, especially as there were lots of signs pointing towards it, and so I decided to follow them.  Well, until I got to a junction without any.  I ended up most of the way up completely the wrong street before I realised I’d done that and had to turn back.  Again, very few photos of this for the same reason as before, but I can confirm Banbury has a lido, if outdoor swimming is your thing.
• Do not assume a park will necessarily containing anything interesting for the day trip visitor.  Think about your home town, and the parks therein.  Would you recommend them to a casual visitor?  I mean, if I think about mine, there are at least four parks (I’m probably forgetting somewhere), and there is only one of them that has anything that might, maybe, interest you.  Another of them has a nice bowling green, I guess, if you fancy a bit of crown green?  Anyway, yeah, the People’s Park is mostly just a park, although the aviary was quite cool (lots of hawks and pelicans).
• Do not leave visiting the independent shops until last.  Banbury has an Old Town, and indeed I’ve helped out at one of the Town-Council-organised Old Town Parties before (these are quarterly events organised to drive trade to the independent shops, with children’s activities and the like).  Some of the shops are quite cool.  They also mostly close at or before 5pm, and so were shut when I walked through.  This was sub-optimal, I have to say.  At least I could find the vacant shop unit that I’d helped out in two years ago (still vacant, sadly).
• Do not mess up the planning of your train home.  Trains to Oxford are two-an-hour, but that does not equate to “every half hour”.  So I just missed one train, but was tired and most of the shops were closing, and I therefore had a long wait for the next one with nothing better to do but sit on Banbury station.  Fortunately I’d downloaded an exciting episode of Corrie to watch while I sat there.

Banbury is actually, I should say, a nice little getaway out of Oxford, in case I’ve given the opposite impression above, and it’s very cheap to get to (as evidenced by the fact that I always advise splitting tickets there to go anywhere else).  As I’ve said, the shops are good, both the independent ones and the chain ones, and the museum does indeed sometimes have some excellent free exhibitions for a small town.  Just don’t make the dozen mistakes I made if you go.