"Ride a cockhorse to Banbury Cross, to see a fine lady on a white horse."

(The festival) was of a throwback to a gentler age where local tradition was celebrated above global convention.

Natalie Toms

The unique nursery rhyme was the excuse for the town of Banbury to play host to a display of strange and exotic creatures last weekend at its fourth annual Hobby Horse Festival.

The event succeeded in performing a dual role - both as enjoyable days out for the family and an insight into some of the more eccentric English traditions.

Banbury has always maintained a unique place in nursery-rhyme lore and the Hobby Horse Festival was initiated on the 400th anniversary of the destruction of the original Cross in July 1600.

The 2003 Hobby Horse Festival attracted all sorts...

The festival now lasts for three days, culminating in a parade through the town and an afternoon's fun in People's Park as part of Town Mayor's Sunday.

This year's festival attracted numerous colourful and imaginative "beasts" and Morris dancers from around the country.

The beasts may be notionally based upon a traditional "hobby horse" design, but the riders have now gone far beyond this in order to produce a bewildering array of many-legged, bright-coloured creatures including dragons, elephants, and unicorns.

Leading off the procession was Banbury's own "fine lady" on a white horse, who managed to look remarkably serious despite the clearly masculine features.

Also in the pageant were some famous beasts, including a horse aged over 100, and a "rude" wooing horse.

Many participants provided added interaction by running up to children in the crowd.

The scope of the festival went even beyond England, with the addition of a bee from Massachusetts, USA.

The Hobby Horse Festival attracts young and old.

A troop of Morris dancers provided traditional entertainment and were joined for the first time by a couple of Chinese dragons, which performed a loud dance with the other animals.

Among the eclectic display of semi-professional beasts, owever, there was still space for the most engaging element of the festival - local children's creations.

From small children riding their own original hobby horses to the older ones who had produced their own dinosaur, ox or giraffe, the enthusiasm was infectious.

Maybe it's just because I got jealous of the girl in the unicorn costume, but the overall impression of the hobby horse festival was of a throwback to a gentler age where local tradition was celebrated above global conventions.

The success of the festival, despite a curious lack of publicity in the local papers, seems to show that there remains a large place for such customs in community life.

By Natalie Toms