Banbury, unlike some towns, has attempted to treat the canal as an attraction to be encouraged, rather than an eyesore to be shunned, and an old boatyard has been incorporated into the development as Tooley's Historic Boatyard.

Since July 2000 Banbury has hosted a unique gathering of traditional mock animals, from around the UK, at the annual Banbury Hobby Horse Festival.

The Kraft Foods factory in Banbury has been a major employer in the town since the mid-1960s.

Banbury has rail services run by Chiltern Railways to and Birmingham, both running to London Marylebone via the non-electrified Chiltern Main Line.

Banbury has an intra-urban bus service provided by Stagecoach Group which feeds the outlying villages and provides transport to places such as Oxford, Chipping Norton and Brackley.

Banbury has one of the UK's lowest unemployment rates, dipping as low as 1 % in 2005, although it has since risen due to the recession which began in 2008. with a resultant high demand for labour.

Banbury has two local newspapers:

Banbury has a museum in the town centre near Spiceball Park, replacing the old museum near Banbury Cross.

Within Formula One, two teams have had their base of operations in Banbury, the former Simtek team which competed in the 1994 and 1995 F1 World Championships was based on the Wildmere Industrial Estate, whilst the current Virgin Racing team has it's manufacturing and production facility sited on Thorpe Way Industrial Estate, utilising the building formerly owned by Ascari Cars, a luxury sports car manufacturer.

* Since 1999 bridge 164 on the Oxford Canal in Banbury has borne Tom Rolt's name in commemoration of his book Narrow Boat ( as does the Tom Rolt Centre at the Ellesmere Port section of the National Waterways Museum ).

The town also has three secondary schools-North Oxfordshire Academy, Banbury School and Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic School and Sports College-and a number of primary schools.

Banbury has several sporting clubs, most notably Banbury United football club.

* John Craven-BBC Countryfile presenter resides in the Banbury area and has often presented Countryfile stories and features from around the area.

The original custard factory has long ceased to exist, but the larger factory Bird's opened in Gibb Street remains ( production was relocated to Banbury in 1964, along with the factory gates, featuring the company logo ), and has been adapted as the Custard Factory arts centre.

This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and Banbury.

The town has numerous bus services and is connected to major towns and cities including Banbury ( 499, 500 ), Bicester, Buckingham, Towcester, Oxford and Northampton ( 8 ).

Morley has teamed up with The Auteurs ' James Banbury to form the band Infantjoy and in 2005 released an album entitled Where The Night Goes on Sony BMG.

Fairport's Cropredy Convention ( previously Cropredy Festival ) has been held every year since 1974 near Cropredy, a village five miles north of Banbury, Oxfordshire and attracts 20, 000 fans.

Mark Gardener and Andy Bell had been to Cheney School in Oxford, appearing in the school's musical theatre productions, and in October 1988, they moved to Banbury to do Foundation Studies in Art and Design at North Oxfordshire College & The Oxfordshire School of Art & Design.

Construction soon started again and by 1778 the canal had reached Banbury.

Essex, who had just reached there, ordered an immediate march to Kineton to bring relief to Banbury, even though his army had straggled and not all his troops were present.

It had only a few farmsteads, the odd house, an allotment field ( now under the Sainsbury ’ s store ), the Municipal Borough of Banbury council ’ s small reservoir just south of Easington farm and a water spring lay to the south of it.

At one time Banbury had many crosses ( The High Cross, The Bread Cross and The White Cross ), but these were destroyed by Puritans on 26 July 1600.

There were many small, Victorian clay pits and kilns in the south west of Banbury, but they had closed by the 1920s.

In the year 1377 a pardon was given to a Welshman, who was wanted for killing another Welshman, after the accused person had taken sanctuary in Banbury church.

Reverend William Whateley ( 1583 – 1639 ), whose father was several times bailiff or mayor of Banbury, was a notable Banbury vicar and was instituted in 1610, but had already been a ' lecturer ' there for some years.

Buckingham had a railway station on the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line and ran from 1850 to 1964.

She was Julia Thuillier, the daughter of an impoverished Swiss banker who had an unsuccessful business at Banbury and had gone to Spain, leaving his family at Bath.

Lord Sandford had previously represented Banbury in the House of Commons and served as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from 1939 to 1942 and as Treasurer of the Household from 1942 to 1945.

Banbury had already been created a baronet, of Southam in the County of Warwick, in 1902. the titles are held by his great-grandson, the third Baron, who succeeded his father in 1981.

* Elizabeth Howard ( c. 1583-17 April 1658 ) married: ( 1 ) William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury had issue ( 2 ) Edward Vaux, 4th Baron Vaux of Harrowden ( some say that Elizabeth's and William's children were illegitimate )

* Juliet Evangeline Glyn, later Dame Juliet Rhys-Williams DBE ( 1898 – 1964 ), a governor of the BBC 1952-1956. she married 24 February 1921 the much older Liberal politician Sir Rhys Rhys-Williams Bt ( 20 October 1865 – 29 January 1955, died aged 89 ), MP for Banbury 1918-1922, and had issue, two sons and two daughters.

It was significant of the decline of the Royalist cause that the " fixed point " had been, in 1643, the King's field army, based indeed on its great entrenched camp, Banbury – Cirencester – Reading – Oxford, but free to move and to hold the enemy, wherever met.

After the failure of Parliamentarian forces to gain a conclusive victory at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642, the Royalist armies had advanced on London, capturing Banbury, Oxford and Reading without conflict.

After the victory at Lostwithiel, King Charles first probed the Parliamentarian defences at Plymouth then marched back across the southern counties of England to relieve several garrisons ( including Banbury, Basing House and Donnington Castle, near Newbury ), which had been isolated while he had been campaigning in the west.

He therefore waited around Newbury for Rupert, and another detachment under the Earl of Northampton which had been sent to relieve Banbury, to rejoin him.

Just over 10 years earlier a government saltpetreman had operated at Banbury for a year, having moved there from the then small market town of Coventry, before moving on to Hook Norton a short while afterwards.

The English nursery rhyme " Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross ", in its several forms, may refer to one of the crosses destroyed by Puritans in 1600.

* Anthony Burgess, the celebrated novelist, taught at Banbury Grammar School ( now Banbury School ) for several years during the 1950s.

Banbury languished in the Hellenic League for several years, and at times they suffered more financial problems.

In the 1947 – 48 season Colchester, then in the Southern League, produced one of the most notable FA Cup runs by a non-league side, beating fellow-non-league side Banbury Spencer in the First Round before beating league clubs Wrexham, Huddersfield and Bradford Park Avenue.