Cirencester
Encyclopedia
Cirencester is a market town
in east Gloucestershire
, England
, 93 miles (150 km) west northwest of London
. Cirencester lies on the River Churn
, a tributary of the River Thames
, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District
. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College
, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world
founded in 1840. The town's Corinium Museum
is well known for its extensive Roman
collection. The Roman name for the town was Corinium, which is thought to have been associated with the ancient British Dobunni
tribe, having the same root word as the River Churn
. The earliest known reference to the town was by Ptolemy
in AD 150.
Cirencester is twinned
with Itzehoe
, Germany
s of the Cotswold Hills
, an outcrop of oolitic
limestone
. Natural drainage is into the River Churn, which flows roughly north to south through the eastern side of the town and joins the Thames near Cricklade
a little to the south. The Thames itself rises just a few miles west of Cirencester.
The town is split into five main areas: the town centre, the suburb
s of Chesterton, Stratton (originally villages outside the town), Watermoor and The Beeches. The village of Siddington
to the south-west of the town is now almost connected to Watermoor.
The town serves as a centre for surrounding villages, providing employment, amenities, shops, commerce and education.
(A417
), Cheltenham (A435
), Warwick
(A429
), Oxford
(A40
via the B4425 road), Wantage
(A417), Swindon
(A419
), Chippenham
(A429), Bristol
, Bath (A433), and Stroud
(A419).
These good transport links bring the town passing trade. Although the ring road and bypass
take traffic away from the town centre, both roads have busy service areas with adequate parking. Access to the railway system is at Kemble railway station
on the main line to London Paddington station, about 4 mi from the town. The nearest airports are at Bristol
, Cotswold Airport at Kemble, London (Heathrow) and Birmingham
.
area, along with St. Albans and Colchester
, and the town includes evidence of significant area roadworks. When the Romans built a fort where the Fosse Way
crossed the Churn, to hold two quingenary alae
tasked with helping to defend the provincial frontier c. AD 49, native Dobunni
were drawn from Bagendon
, a settlement of the Dobunni situated 3 miles (5 km) to the north, to create a civil settlement near the fort. When the frontier moved to the north following the conquest of Wales
, this fort was closed and its fortifications levelled c. 70, but the town
persisted and flourished under the name Corinium Dobunnorum.
Even in Roman times, there was a thriving wool
trade and industry, which contributed to the growth of Corinium. A large forum
and basilica
was built over the site of the fort, and archeological evidence shows signs of further civic growth. When a wall
was erected around the Roman city in the late second century, it enclosed 240 acre
s (1 km²), making Corinium, in area, the second-largest city in Britain
. It was made the seat of the Roman province
of Britannia Prima
in the fourth century, and some historians would date the pillar the Roman Governor
L. Septimus erected to the Roman god Jovian
to this period, providing evidence of a sign of pagan reaction under the Roman Emperor Julian
.
There are many Roman remains in the surrounding area, including several Roman villa
s near the villages of Chedworth
and Withington
.
The Roman amphitheatre
still exists in an area known as the Querns
to the southwest of the town, but has only been partially excavated. Investigations in the town show that it was fortified in the fifth or sixth centuries. Andrew Breeze argued that Gildas
received his later education in Cirencester in the early sixth century, showing that it was still able to provide an education in Latin rhetoric and law at this time. Possibly this was the palace of one of the British kings defeated by Ceawlin
in 577. It was later the scene of the Battle of Cirencester
, this time between the Mercia
n king Penda
and the West Saxon
kings Cynegils
and Cwichelm
in 628.
The minster church
of Cirencester, founded in the 9th or 10th century, was probably a royal foundation. It was destroyed by Augustinian monk
s in the 12th century, and replaced by the great abbey church
.
the royal manor
of Cirencester was granted to the Earl of Hereford
, William Fitz-Osbern, but by 1075 it had reverted to the Crown. The manor was granted to Cirencester Abbey
, founded by Henry I
in 1117, and following half a century of building work during which the minster church was demolished, the great abbey church was finally dedicated in 1176. The manor was granted to the Abbey in 1189, although a royal charter
dated 1133 speaks of burgesses in the town.
The struggle of the townsmen to prove that Cirencester was a borough
, and thus gain the associated rights and privileges, probably began in the same year, when they were amerced for a false presentment. Four inquisitions during the 13th century supported the abbot's claims, yet the townspeople remained unwavering in their quest for borough status: in 1342, they lodged a Bill of complaint in Chancery
. Twenty townspeople were ordered up to Westminster
, where they declared under oath that successive abbots had bought up many burgage
tenenments, and made the borough into an appendage of the manor, depriving it of its separate court. They claimed that the royal charter that conferred on the men of Cirencester the liberties of Winchester had been destroyed when fifty years prior the abbot had bribed the burgess who held the charter to give it to him, whereupon the abbot had had it burned. In reply, the abbot refuted these claims, and the case passed on to the King's Bench
. When ordered to produce the foundation charter of his abbey the abbot refused, apparently because that document would be fatal to his case, and instead played a winning card. In return for a "fine" of £300, he obtained a new royal charter confirming his privileges and a writ of supersedeas.
Yet the townspeople continued in their fight: for their aid to the crown against the earls of Kent and Salisbury, Henry IV
in 1403 gave the townsmen a Guild
Merchant
, although two inquisitions reiterated the abbot's rights. The struggle between the abbot and the townspeople continued with the abbot's privileges confirmed in 1408‑1409 and 1413, and in 1418 the abbot finally removed this thorn in his side when the gild merchant was annulled, and in 1477 parliament declared that Cirencester was not corporate. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish the gild merchant, the government in 1592 was vested in the bailiff
of the lord of the manor
.
in 1539, Henry VIII
ordered the total demolition of the Abbey buildings. Today only the Norman
Arch and parts of the precinct wall remain above ground, forming the perimeter of a public park in the middle of town. Despite this, the freedom of a borough continued to elude the townspeople, and they only saw the old lord of the manor replaced by a new lord of the manor as the King acquired the abbey's title.
Sheep rearing, wool
sales, weaving
and woollen broadcloth
and cloth-making were the main strengths of England's trade in the Middle Ages
, and not only the abbey but many of Cirencester's merchants and clothiers gained wealth and prosperity from the national and international trade. The tombs of these merchants can be seen in the parish church
, while their fine houses of Cotswold stone
still stand in and around Coxwell Street and Dollar Street. Their wealth funded the rebuilding of the nave of the parish church in 1515-30, to create the large parish church, often referred to as the 'Cathedral of the Cotswolds'. Other wool church
es can be seen in neighbouring Northleach
and Chipping Campden
.
came to Cirencester in February 1643 when Royalist
s and Parliamentarians
came to blows in the streets. Over 300 were killed, and 1,200 prisoners were held captive in the church. The townsfolk supported the Parliamentarians but gentry
and clergy were for the old order, so that when Charles I of England
was executed in 1649 the minister, Alexander Gregory, wrote on behalf of the gentry in the parish register, 'O England what did'st thou do, the 30th of this month'.
At the end of the English Civil War King Charles II
spent the night of 11 September 1651 in Cirencester, during his escape
after the Battle of Worcester
on his way to France.
, at the centre of a network of turnpike
roads with easy access to markets for its produce of grain and wool. A local grammar school
provided education for those who could afford it, and businesses thrived in the town, which was the major urban centre for the surrounding area.
In 1789 the opening of a branch of the Thames and Severn Canal
provided access to markets further afield, by way of a link through the River Thames. In 1841 a branch railway line was opened to Kemble
to provide a link to the Great Western Railway at Swindon
. The Midland and South Western Junction Railway
opened a station at Watermoor
in 1883. Cirencester thus was served by two railway lines until the 1960s.
The loss of canal and the direct rail link encouraged dependency on road transport. An inner ring road system was completed in 1975 in an attempt to reduce congestion in the town centre, which has since been augmented by an outer bypass with the expansion of the A417 road. Coaches depart from London Road for Victoria Bus Station
in central London and Heathrow Airport, taking advantage of the M4 Motorway
. Kemble Station to the west of the town, distinguished by a sheltered garden, is served by fast trains from Paddington station
via Swindon
.
In 1894 the passing of the Local Government Act
brought at last into existence Cirencester's first independent elected body, the Urban District Council. The reorganization of the local governments in 1974 replaced the Urban District Council with the present two-tier system of Cotswold District Council
and Cirencester Town Council
. A concerted effort to reduce overhead wiring and roadside clutter has given the town some picturesque streetscenes. Many shops cater to tourists and many house family businesses.
Under the patronage of the Bathurst family, the Cirencester area, notably Sapperton
, became a major centre for the Arts and Crafts movement
in the Cotswolds, when the furniture designer and architect-craftsman Ernest Gimson
opened workshops in the early 20th century, and Norman Jewson
, his foremost student, practised in the town.
, and Cerney Wick; also on the River Churn. The modern name Cirencester is derived from the cognate root Ciren and the standard -cester ending indicating a Roman fortress or encampment. It seems certain that this name root goes back to pre-Roman times
and is similar to the original Brythonic
name for the river, and perhaps the settlement. An early Welsh language
ecclesiastical list from St David's
gives another form of the name Caerceri where Caer is the Welsh for fortress and Ceri is cognate with the other forms of the name.
times the name of the town was written Cirrenceastre or Cyrneceastre (the Saxon 'c' was pronounced like the 'ch' in change). The Normans
mispronounced the 'ch' sound as [ts], resulting in the modern name Cirencester ˈsaɪrənsɛstər. The form Ciceter ˈsɪsɨtər invented by William Shakespeare
was once used locally as an abbreviation. Sometimes the form Cicester ˈsɪsɨstər was heard instead. These forms are now very rarely used, while many local people abbreviate the name to Ciren (ˈsaɪrən).
Today it is usually ˈsaɪrənsɛstər, as it is spelt, although occasionally it is ˈsɪsɨstər, ˈsɪsɨtər or ˈsɪstər.
The Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester
is renowned for its Perpendicular porch, fan vault
s and merchants' tombs.
The town also has a Roman Catholic Church of St Peter's; the foundation stone was laid on 20 June 1895.
Coxwell Street to the north of Market Square is home to the Baptist Church that was founded in 1651 - making it one of the oldest Baptist churches in England. Its current building was started in 1856.
To the west of the town is Cirencester House
, the seat of Earl Bathurst
and the site of one of the finest landscape garden
s in England, laid out by the first Earl Bathurst after 1714.
Abbey House, Cirencester
was a country house built on the site of the former Cirencester Abbey following its dissolution and demolition at the English Reformation
in the 1530s. The site was granted in 1564 to Richard Master, physician to Queen Elizabeth I. The house was rebuilt and altered at several dates by the Master family, who still own the agricultural estate. By 1897 the house was let, and it remained in the occupation of tenants until shortly after the Second World War. It was finally demolished in 1964.
On Cotswold Avenue is the site of a Roman amphitheatre
which, while buried, retains its shape in the earthen topography of the small park setting. Cirencester was one of the most substantial cities of Roman-era Britain.
moved to its new site, the centre is run by the local district council. It includes a swimming pool, sauna, steam room, showers, relaxation area, a large sports hall, gym and fitness centre. The centre was closed for eight months to be repaired after the flooding in July 2007. The town also has an open air swimming pool, dating back to 1870, this is run by a charity and local volunteers and is only open during the summer months.
It also hosts Cotswold Gymnastics Club, which has a British 2nd place Veteran as a coach, as well as having won approximately 63 medals from between 2005 and 2009. It is at Deer Park School.
The local football club, Cirencester Town F.C.
, are currently in the Southern League Premier Division as of 2011. The team is known as The Centurions, and moved in 2002 from their former ground at Smithsfield on the Tetbury Road to a purpose-built sports complex known as the Corinium Stadium. The club is designated by The Football Association as a Community Club because each week it provides football awareness, coaching, and competition, for over 300 children, ranging from age 6+ to 18. As well as the main pitch, there are six additional football pitches, mainly used by the junior football teams. The club has also developed a full-size indoor training area, known as The Arena, which is used for training, for social events, and for 5-a-side leagues throughout the year. The town also has another football team, Cirencester United F.C.
, and they play in the Hellenic Football League
Division One West.
Cirencester Ladies Netball
Club has three squads. The A team play in the 1st division of the Gloucestershire League. The B team in the 3rd Division and the C team in the 5th Division.
The Rugby Club
are based at the Whiteway. They have four main teams, a colts, a Youth and Mini sections.
Cirencester Polo
Club, the oldest polo
club in the UK
has its main grounds are located in Earl Bathurst
's Cirencester Park. It is frequently used by The Prince of Wales
and his sons The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry
.
Cirencester Car Club
is one of the oldest car
clubs in the UK
.
Cirencester Cricket
Club, has three senior Saturday league teams, a Friendly team and an Evening side. It also has a youth section, catering for children aged 6–17. Cirencester Cricket Club is situated in Lord Bathurst's Park, near to Cirencester Deer Park School.
located on the Stroud Road and Kingshill School
off the London Road. It also offers an independent school, catering for 3-18 year olds, Rendcomb College
. The town used to have a 500 year old grammar school
, which in 1966 joined with the secondary modern to form Cirencester Deer Park School
. In 1991 Cirencester College
was created, taking over the sixth form of Deer Park. It is located adjacent to Deer Park School.
The town also hosts the Royal Agricultural College
which is located between the Stroud and Tetbury Roads.
, hosts drama and musical events by community groups and professional touring companies.
Cirencester Operatic Society and Cirencester Philharmonia orchestra are also resident in the town.
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
in east Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, 93 miles (150 km) west northwest of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Cirencester lies on the River Churn
River Churn
The River Churn is one of the Cotswold rivers that feeds into the River Thames catchment. It arises at Seven Springs near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England and flows south across the Cotswold dip slope, passing through Cirencester and joining the River Thames near Cricklade in Wiltshire...
, a tributary of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District
Cotswold (district)
Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire in England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region. Its main town is Cirencester....
. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College
Royal Agricultural College
The Royal Agricultural College is a higher education institution located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK. Established in 1845, it was the first agricultural college in the English speaking world...
, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
founded in 1840. The town's Corinium Museum
Corinium Museum
The Corinium Museum in the Cotswold town of Cirencester in England has a large collection of objects found in and around the locality. The bulk of the exhibits are from the Roman town of Corinium Dobunnorum, but the museum includes material from as early as the Neolithic and right up to Victorian...
is well known for its extensive Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
collection. The Roman name for the town was Corinium, which is thought to have been associated with the ancient British Dobunni
Dobunni
The Dobunni were one of the Celtic tribes living in the British Isles prior to the Roman invasion of Britain. There are seven known references to the tribe in Roman histories and inscriptions. The latter part of the name possibly derives from Bune, a cup or vessel...
tribe, having the same root word as the River Churn
River Churn
The River Churn is one of the Cotswold rivers that feeds into the River Thames catchment. It arises at Seven Springs near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England and flows south across the Cotswold dip slope, passing through Cirencester and joining the River Thames near Cricklade in Wiltshire...
. The earliest known reference to the town was by Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
in AD 150.
Cirencester is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with Itzehoe
Itzehoe
Itzehoe is a town in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km northwest of Hamburg and 24 km north of Glückstadt...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Local geography
Cirencester lies on the lower dip slopeDip slope
A dip slope is a geological formation often created by erosion of tilted strata. Dip slopes are found on homoclinal ridges with one side that is steep and irregular and another side, the dip slope, that is generally planar with a dip parallel to the bedding...
s of the Cotswold Hills
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
, an outcrop of oolitic
Oolite
Oolite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. The name derives from the Hellenic word òoion for egg. Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 mm; rocks composed of ooids larger than 2 mm are called pisolites...
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. Natural drainage is into the River Churn, which flows roughly north to south through the eastern side of the town and joins the Thames near Cricklade
Cricklade
Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire in England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester.On 25 September 2011 Cricklade was awarded The Royal Horticultural Society's 'Champion of Champions' award in the Britain in Bloom competition.Cricklade is twinned with...
a little to the south. The Thames itself rises just a few miles west of Cirencester.
The town is split into five main areas: the town centre, the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s of Chesterton, Stratton (originally villages outside the town), Watermoor and The Beeches. The village of Siddington
Siddington, Gloucestershire
Siddington is a village located one mile south of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England.William fitzBaderon is recorded in the Domesday Book as holding one hide in Siddington ; Aswith held it in the time of King Edward, before the Norman conquest in 1066...
to the south-west of the town is now almost connected to Watermoor.
The town serves as a centre for surrounding villages, providing employment, amenities, shops, commerce and education.
Transport
Cirencester is the hub of a significant road network with important routes to GloucesterGloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
(A417
A417 road
-Streatley - Gloucester :It runs from Streatley at its junction with the A329 to Wantage, over the picturesque Berkshire Downs. In Wantage, it negotiates the market place -Streatley - Gloucester (M5):It runs from Streatley at its junction with the A329 (between Reading and Wallingford) to Wantage,...
), Cheltenham (A435
A435 road
The A435 is a main road in England running between Birmingham and Cirencester .-Birmingham to Alcester:...
), Warwick
Warwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
(A429
A429 road
The A429 is a main road in England that runs in a north-northeasterly direction from junction 17 of the M4 motorway to Coventry in the West Midlands, by way of Malmesbury, Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh, east of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, and Kenilworth.For much of its length...
), Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
(A40
A40 road
The A40 is a major trunk road connecting London to Fishguard, Wales and officially called The London to Fishguard Trunk Road in all legal documents and Acts...
via the B4425 road), Wantage
Wantage
Wantage is a market town and civil parish in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. The town is on Letcombe Brook, about south-west of Abingdon and a similar distance west of Didcot....
(A417), Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
(A419
A419 road
The A419 road is a primary route between Chiseldon near Swindon at junction 15 of the M4 with the A346 road, and Whitminster in Gloucestershire, England....
), Chippenham
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Chippenham is a market town in Wiltshire, England, located east of Bath and west of London. In the 2001 census the population of the town was recorded as 28,065....
(A429), Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Bath (A433), and Stroud
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District.Situated below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at the meeting point of the Five Valleys, the town is noted for its steep streets and cafe culture...
(A419).
These good transport links bring the town passing trade. Although the ring road and bypass
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
take traffic away from the town centre, both roads have busy service areas with adequate parking. Access to the railway system is at Kemble railway station
Kemble railway station
Kemble railway station is a railway station that serves the village of Kemble in Gloucestershire. The station is located on the Swindon to Gloucester "Golden Valley" line. Despite its rural location, Kemble station has a high number of passengers, due mainly to the proximity of...
on the main line to London Paddington station, about 4 mi from the town. The nearest airports are at Bristol
Bristol International Airport
Bristol Airport , located at Lulsgate Bottom in North Somerset, is the commercial airport serving the city of Bristol, England and the surrounding area. At first it was named Bristol Lulsgate Airport and from March 1997 to March 2010 it was known as Bristol International Airport...
, Cotswold Airport at Kemble, London (Heathrow) and Birmingham
Birmingham International Airport (UK)
Birmingham Airport , formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England...
.
Roman Corinium
Cirencester was known to be an important early RomanRoman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
area, along with St. Albans and Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
, and the town includes evidence of significant area roadworks. When the Romans built a fort where the Fosse Way
Fosse Way
The Fosse Way was a Roman road in England that linked Exeter in South West England to Lincoln in Lincolnshire, via Ilchester , Bath , Cirencester and Leicester .It joined Akeman Street and Ermin Way at Cirencester, crossed Watling Street at Venonis south...
crossed the Churn, to hold two quingenary alae
Ala (Roman military)
An Ala was the term used during the mid- Roman Republic to denote a military formation composed of conscripts from the socii, Rome's Italian military allies. A normal consular army during this period consisted of 2 legions, composed of Roman citizens only, and 2 allied alae...
tasked with helping to defend the provincial frontier c. AD 49, native Dobunni
Dobunni
The Dobunni were one of the Celtic tribes living in the British Isles prior to the Roman invasion of Britain. There are seven known references to the tribe in Roman histories and inscriptions. The latter part of the name possibly derives from Bune, a cup or vessel...
were drawn from Bagendon
Bagendon
Bagendon is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about four miles north of Cirencester. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 265....
, a settlement of the Dobunni situated 3 miles (5 km) to the north, to create a civil settlement near the fort. When the frontier moved to the north following the conquest of Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, this fort was closed and its fortifications levelled c. 70, but the town
Castra
The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...
persisted and flourished under the name Corinium Dobunnorum.
Even in Roman times, there was a thriving wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
trade and industry, which contributed to the growth of Corinium. A large forum
Forum (Roman)
A forum was a public square in a Roman municipium, or any civitas, reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls...
and basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
was built over the site of the fort, and archeological evidence shows signs of further civic growth. When a wall
Defensive wall
A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements...
was erected around the Roman city in the late second century, it enclosed 240 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (1 km²), making Corinium, in area, the second-largest city in Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. It was made the seat of the Roman province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of Britannia Prima
Britannia Prima
Britannia Prima was one of the provinces of Roman Britain in existence by c. 312 AD. It was probably created as part of the administrative reforms of the Roman Emperor Diocletian after the defeat of the usurper Allectus by Constantius Chlorus in 296 AD. In the 3rd century, the Romans created...
in the fourth century, and some historians would date the pillar the Roman Governor
Roman governor
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
L. Septimus erected to the Roman god Jovian
Jupiter (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
to this period, providing evidence of a sign of pagan reaction under the Roman Emperor Julian
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
.
There are many Roman remains in the surrounding area, including several Roman villa
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
s near the villages of Chedworth
Chedworth
Chedworth is a village in Gloucestershire, in the Cotswolds and best known as the location of Chedworth Roman Villa, administered since 1924 by the National Trust.- Roman villa :...
and Withington
Withington, Gloucestershire
Withington is a village in Gloucestershire, England, about eight miles south-east of Cheltenham. The River Coln runs through the village.The parish church is St Michael and All Angels...
.
Sub-Roman and Saxon times
Cirencester Amphitheatre
Cirencester Amphitheatre was a Roman amphitheatre located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Archeological digs have uncovered the earthworks, revealing the outline of the construction, which is still visible, with the banking reaching 25 feet from the bottom of the arena. The arena itself...
still exists in an area known as the Querns
Querns area, Cirencester
The Querns is an area of Cirencester, an ancient market town in the Cotswold hills of England.Its principle feature is the town's famous Roman amphitheatre, an impressive ancient monument that is surrounded by many other archaeological features, most notably the extensive Roman Quarries and a huge...
to the southwest of the town, but has only been partially excavated. Investigations in the town show that it was fortified in the fifth or sixth centuries. Andrew Breeze argued that Gildas
Gildas
Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens...
received his later education in Cirencester in the early sixth century, showing that it was still able to provide an education in Latin rhetoric and law at this time. Possibly this was the palace of one of the British kings defeated by Ceawlin
Ceawlin of Wessex
Ceawlin was a King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic of Wessex, whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle represents as the leader of the first group of Saxons to come to the land which later became Wessex...
in 577. It was later the scene of the Battle of Cirencester
Battle of Cirencester
The Battle of Cirencester was fought at Cirencester, Britain in 628. The conflict involved the armies of Mercia, under King Penda, and the Saxons of Wessex, under Kings Cynegils and Cwichelm...
, this time between the Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
n king Penda
Penda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
and the West Saxon
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
kings Cynegils
Cynegils of Wessex
Cynegils was King of Wessex from c. 611 to c. 643.Cynegils is traditionally considered to have been King of Wessex, but the familiar kingdoms of the so-called Heptarchy had not yet formed from the patchwork of smaller kingdoms in his lifetime...
and Cwichelm
Cwichelm of Wessex
Cwichelm was an Anglo-Saxon king of the Gewisse, a people in the upper Thames area who later created the kingdom of Wessex. He is usually counted among the Kings of Wessex....
in 628.
The minster church
Minster (cathedral)
Minster is an honorific title given to particular churches in England, most famously York Minster. The term minster is first found in royal foundation charters of the 7th century; and, although it corresponds to the Latin monasterium or monastery, it then designated any settlement of clergy living...
of Cirencester, founded in the 9th or 10th century, was probably a royal foundation. It was destroyed by Augustinian monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s in the 12th century, and replaced by the great abbey church
Cirencester Abbey
Cirencester Abbey in Gloucestershire was founded as an Augustinian monastery in 1117 on the site of an earlier church, the oldest-known Saxon church in England, which had itself been built on the site of a Roman structure. The church was greatly enlarged in the 14th century with addition of an...
.
Norman times
At the Norman ConquestNorman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
the royal manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Cirencester was granted to the Earl of Hereford
Earl of Hereford
The title of Earl of Hereford was created six times in the Peerage of England. See also Duke of Hereford, Viscount Hereford. Dates indicate the years the person held the title for.-Earls of Hereford, First Creation :*Swegen Godwinson...
, William Fitz-Osbern, but by 1075 it had reverted to the Crown. The manor was granted to Cirencester Abbey
Abbey House, Cirencester
Abbey House, Cirencester was a country house in the English county of Gloucestershire that developed on the site of the former Cirencester Abbey following the dissolution and demolition of the abbey at the Reformation in the 1530s. The site of the dissolved abbey of Cirencester was granted in 1564...
, founded by Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
in 1117, and following half a century of building work during which the minster church was demolished, the great abbey church was finally dedicated in 1176. The manor was granted to the Abbey in 1189, although a royal charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
dated 1133 speaks of burgesses in the town.
The struggle of the townsmen to prove that Cirencester was a borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
, and thus gain the associated rights and privileges, probably began in the same year, when they were amerced for a false presentment. Four inquisitions during the 13th century supported the abbot's claims, yet the townspeople remained unwavering in their quest for borough status: in 1342, they lodged a Bill of complaint in Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
. Twenty townspeople were ordered up to Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, where they declared under oath that successive abbots had bought up many burgage
Burgage
Burgage is a medieval land term used in England and Scotland, well established by the 13th century. A burgage was a town rental property , owned by a king or lord. The property usually, and distinctly, consisted of a house on a long and narrow plot of land, with the narrow end facing the street...
tenenments, and made the borough into an appendage of the manor, depriving it of its separate court. They claimed that the royal charter that conferred on the men of Cirencester the liberties of Winchester had been destroyed when fifty years prior the abbot had bribed the burgess who held the charter to give it to him, whereupon the abbot had had it burned. In reply, the abbot refuted these claims, and the case passed on to the King's Bench
King's Bench
The Queen's Bench is the superior court in a number of jurisdictions within some of the Commonwealth realms...
. When ordered to produce the foundation charter of his abbey the abbot refused, apparently because that document would be fatal to his case, and instead played a winning card. In return for a "fine" of £300, he obtained a new royal charter confirming his privileges and a writ of supersedeas.
Yet the townspeople continued in their fight: for their aid to the crown against the earls of Kent and Salisbury, Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
in 1403 gave the townsmen a Guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
Merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, although two inquisitions reiterated the abbot's rights. The struggle between the abbot and the townspeople continued with the abbot's privileges confirmed in 1408‑1409 and 1413, and in 1418 the abbot finally removed this thorn in his side when the gild merchant was annulled, and in 1477 parliament declared that Cirencester was not corporate. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish the gild merchant, the government in 1592 was vested in the bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
of the lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
.
Tudor times
As part of the Dissolution of the MonasteriesDissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in 1539, Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
ordered the total demolition of the Abbey buildings. Today only the Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
Arch and parts of the precinct wall remain above ground, forming the perimeter of a public park in the middle of town. Despite this, the freedom of a borough continued to elude the townspeople, and they only saw the old lord of the manor replaced by a new lord of the manor as the King acquired the abbey's title.
Sheep rearing, wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
sales, weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
and woollen broadcloth
Broadcloth
Broadcloth is a dense woollen cloth. Modern broadcloth can be composed of cotton, silk, or polyester, but traditionally broadcloth was made solely of wool. The dense weave lends sturdiness to the material....
and cloth-making were the main strengths of England's trade in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, and not only the abbey but many of Cirencester's merchants and clothiers gained wealth and prosperity from the national and international trade. The tombs of these merchants can be seen in the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, while their fine houses of Cotswold stone
Cotswold stone
Cotswold stone is a yellow oolitic limestone quarried in many places in the Cotswold Hills in the south midlands of England. When weathered, the colour of buildings made or faced with this stone is often described as 'honey' or 'golden'....
still stand in and around Coxwell Street and Dollar Street. Their wealth funded the rebuilding of the nave of the parish church in 1515-30, to create the large parish church, often referred to as the 'Cathedral of the Cotswolds'. Other wool church
Wool church
A wool church is an English church built primarily from the proceeds of the mediaeval wool trade. Wool churches are common in the Cotswolds and in East Anglia, where enormous profits from the wool business spurred construction of ever-grander edifices....
es can be seen in neighbouring Northleach
Northleach
Northleach is a small Cotswold market town in Gloucestershire, England. It constitutes the major part of the civil parish of Northleach with Eastington.The nearest railway stations are Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham and Shipton on the Cotswold Line....
and Chipping Campden
Chipping Campden
Chipping Campden is a small market town within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its elegant terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century...
.
During the Civil War
The English Civil WarEnglish Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
came to Cirencester in February 1643 when Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
s and Parliamentarians
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
came to blows in the streets. Over 300 were killed, and 1,200 prisoners were held captive in the church. The townsfolk supported the Parliamentarians but gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
and clergy were for the old order, so that when Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
was executed in 1649 the minister, Alexander Gregory, wrote on behalf of the gentry in the parish register, 'O England what did'st thou do, the 30th of this month'.
At the end of the English Civil War King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
spent the night of 11 September 1651 in Cirencester, during his escape
Escape of Charles II
The Escape of Charles II from England in 1651 is a key episode in his life. Although it took only six weeks, it had a major effect on his attitudes for the rest of his life.-The fugitive king:...
after the Battle of Worcester
Battle of Worcester
The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester, England and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalist, predominantly Scottish, forces of King Charles II...
on his way to France.
Recent history
At the end of the 18th century Cirencester was a thriving market townMarket town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
, at the centre of a network of turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
roads with easy access to markets for its produce of grain and wool. A local grammar school
Cirencester Grammar School
Cirencester Grammar School was a grammar school in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, founded in about 1461 and closed in 1966.-History:Princess Alexandra of Kent visited the school on 23 July 1958 as part of its quincentenary celebrations....
provided education for those who could afford it, and businesses thrived in the town, which was the major urban centre for the surrounding area.
Thames and Severn Canal
The Thames and Severn Canal is a canal in Gloucestershire in the south of England, which was completed in 1789. It was conceived as part of a canal route from Bristol to London. At its eastern end, it connects to the River Thames at Inglesham Lock near Lechlade, while at its western end, it...
provided access to markets further afield, by way of a link through the River Thames. In 1841 a branch railway line was opened to Kemble
Kemble, Gloucestershire
Kemble is a village in Gloucestershire, England.It lies four miles from Cirencester and is the settlement closest to Thames Head, the source of the River Thames. Kemble Church is part of the Thameshead benefice, comprising the communities of Kemble, Ewen, Poole Keynes, Somerford Keynes, and...
to provide a link to the Great Western Railway at Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
. The Midland and South Western Junction Railway
Midland and South Western Junction Railway
The Midland and South Western Junction Railway was, until the 1923 Grouping, an independent railway built to form a north-south link between the Midland and London and South Western Railways allowing the Midland and other companies' trains to reach the port of Southampton.-Formation:The M&SWJR...
opened a station at Watermoor
Cirencester Watermoor railway station
Cirencester Watermoor railway station was on the Midland and South Western Junction Railway at Cirencester in Gloucestershire. The station opened on 18 December 1883 as the terminus of the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway line from Swindon Town. That line then amalgamated with the Swindon,...
in 1883. Cirencester thus was served by two railway lines until the 1960s.
The loss of canal and the direct rail link encouraged dependency on road transport. An inner ring road system was completed in 1975 in an attempt to reduce congestion in the town centre, which has since been augmented by an outer bypass with the expansion of the A417 road. Coaches depart from London Road for Victoria Bus Station
Victoria Bus Station
Victoria bus station is a bus station outside Victoria Station in Terminus Place, in the City of Westminster district of London the capital of the United Kingdom....
in central London and Heathrow Airport, taking advantage of the M4 Motorway
M4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...
. Kemble Station to the west of the town, distinguished by a sheltered garden, is served by fast trains from Paddington station
Paddington station
Paddington railway station, also known as London Paddington, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex.The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates...
via Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
.
In 1894 the passing of the Local Government Act
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888...
brought at last into existence Cirencester's first independent elected body, the Urban District Council. The reorganization of the local governments in 1974 replaced the Urban District Council with the present two-tier system of Cotswold District Council
Cotswold (district)
Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire in England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region. Its main town is Cirencester....
and Cirencester Town Council
Town council
A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....
. A concerted effort to reduce overhead wiring and roadside clutter has given the town some picturesque streetscenes. Many shops cater to tourists and many house family businesses.
Under the patronage of the Bathurst family, the Cirencester area, notably Sapperton
Sapperton, Gloucestershire
Sapperton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire in England, about west of Cirencester. It is most famous for Sapperton canal tunnel and its connection with the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement in the early 20th century. It has a population of 424.The parish...
, became a major centre for the Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
in the Cotswolds, when the furniture designer and architect-craftsman Ernest Gimson
Ernest Gimson
Ernest William Gimson was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers"...
opened workshops in the early 20th century, and Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson
Norman Jewson was an English architect-craftsman of the Arts and Crafts movement, who practiced in the Cotswolds. He was a distinguished, younger member of the group which had settled in Sapperton, Gloucestershire, a feudal village in rural southwest England, under the influence of Ernest Gimson...
, his foremost student, practised in the town.
Name
The name stem Corin is cognate with Churn (the modern name of the river on which the town is built) and with the stem Cerne in the nearby villages of North Cerney, South CerneySouth Cerney
South Cerney is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, 3 miles south of Cirencester and close to the border with Wiltshire. It had a population of 3,074 according to the 2001 census...
, and Cerney Wick; also on the River Churn. The modern name Cirencester is derived from the cognate root Ciren and the standard -cester ending indicating a Roman fortress or encampment. It seems certain that this name root goes back to pre-Roman times
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...
and is similar to the original Brythonic
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
name for the river, and perhaps the settlement. An early Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
ecclesiastical list from St David's
St David's
St Davids , is a city and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Lying on the River Alun on St David's Peninsula, it is Britain's smallest city in terms of both size and population, the final resting place of Saint David, the country's patron saint, and the de facto ecclesiastical capital of...
gives another form of the name Caerceri where Caer is the Welsh for fortress and Ceri is cognate with the other forms of the name.
Pronunciation
In Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
times the name of the town was written Cirrenceastre or Cyrneceastre (the Saxon 'c' was pronounced like the 'ch' in change). The Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
mispronounced the 'ch' sound as [ts], resulting in the modern name Cirencester ˈsaɪrənsɛstər. The form Ciceter ˈsɪsɨtər invented by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
was once used locally as an abbreviation. Sometimes the form Cicester ˈsɪsɨstər was heard instead. These forms are now very rarely used, while many local people abbreviate the name to Ciren (ˈsaɪrən).
Today it is usually ˈsaɪrənsɛstər, as it is spelt, although occasionally it is ˈsɪsɨstər, ˈsɪsɨtər or ˈsɪstər.
Leisure and entertainment
Cirencester has an important tourist trade as well as providing shopping, entertainment, and sports facilities for the inhabitants of the town and the surrounding area.Sites of interest
Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester
The Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester is a parish church in the Church of England in Cirencester.-History:The church is medieval. It is renowned for its perpendicular porch, fan vaults and merchants' tombs....
is renowned for its Perpendicular porch, fan vault
Fan vault
thumb|right|250px|Fan vaulting over the nave at Bath Abbey, Bath, England. Made from local Bath stone, this is a [[Victorian restoration]] of the original roof of 1608....
s and merchants' tombs.
The town also has a Roman Catholic Church of St Peter's; the foundation stone was laid on 20 June 1895.
Coxwell Street to the north of Market Square is home to the Baptist Church that was founded in 1651 - making it one of the oldest Baptist churches in England. Its current building was started in 1856.
To the west of the town is Cirencester House
Cirencester House
Cirencester House , at Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England, is the seat of the Bathurst family, Earls Bathurst. Allen Bathurst, the first Earl Bathurst , inherited the estate on the death of his father, Sir Benjamin Bathurst, in 1704...
, the seat of Earl Bathurst
Earl Bathurst
Earl Bathurst, of Bathurst in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1772 for Allen Bathurst, 1st Baron Bathurst. He was a politician and an opponent of Sir Robert Walpole...
and the site of one of the finest landscape garden
Landscape garden
The term landscape garden is often used to describe the English garden design style characteristic of the eighteenth century, that swept the Continent replacing the formal Renaissance garden and Garden à la française models. The work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown is particularly influential.The...
s in England, laid out by the first Earl Bathurst after 1714.
Abbey House, Cirencester
Abbey House, Cirencester
Abbey House, Cirencester was a country house in the English county of Gloucestershire that developed on the site of the former Cirencester Abbey following the dissolution and demolition of the abbey at the Reformation in the 1530s. The site of the dissolved abbey of Cirencester was granted in 1564...
was a country house built on the site of the former Cirencester Abbey following its dissolution and demolition at the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
in the 1530s. The site was granted in 1564 to Richard Master, physician to Queen Elizabeth I. The house was rebuilt and altered at several dates by the Master family, who still own the agricultural estate. By 1897 the house was let, and it remained in the occupation of tenants until shortly after the Second World War. It was finally demolished in 1964.
On Cotswold Avenue is the site of a Roman amphitheatre
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
which, while buried, retains its shape in the earthen topography of the small park setting. Cirencester was one of the most substantial cities of Roman-era Britain.
Sport
In April 2006 the Cotswold Leisure CentreLeisure centre
A leisure centre in the UK and Canada is a purpose built building or site, usually owned and operated by the city, borough council or municipal district council, where people go to keep fit or relax through using the facilities.- Typical Facilities :...
moved to its new site, the centre is run by the local district council. It includes a swimming pool, sauna, steam room, showers, relaxation area, a large sports hall, gym and fitness centre. The centre was closed for eight months to be repaired after the flooding in July 2007. The town also has an open air swimming pool, dating back to 1870, this is run by a charity and local volunteers and is only open during the summer months.
It also hosts Cotswold Gymnastics Club, which has a British 2nd place Veteran as a coach, as well as having won approximately 63 medals from between 2005 and 2009. It is at Deer Park School.
The local football club, Cirencester Town F.C.
Cirencester Town F.C.
Cirencester Town is an English football club based in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The club are currently members of the Southern League Premier Division and play at the Corinium Stadium...
, are currently in the Southern League Premier Division as of 2011. The team is known as The Centurions, and moved in 2002 from their former ground at Smithsfield on the Tetbury Road to a purpose-built sports complex known as the Corinium Stadium. The club is designated by The Football Association as a Community Club because each week it provides football awareness, coaching, and competition, for over 300 children, ranging from age 6+ to 18. As well as the main pitch, there are six additional football pitches, mainly used by the junior football teams. The club has also developed a full-size indoor training area, known as The Arena, which is used for training, for social events, and for 5-a-side leagues throughout the year. The town also has another football team, Cirencester United F.C.
Cirencester United F.C.
Cirencester United F.C. was a football club based in Cirencester, England. They were established in 1969 as The Herd. In 1990, they changed to their present name. They joined the Hellenic Football League Division One in 1987. For the 2008–09 season, they were members of the Hellenic Football League...
, and they play in the Hellenic Football League
Hellenic Football League
The Hellenic Football League is an English football league covering an area including the English counties of Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, southern Buckinghamshire, southern Herefordshire, western Greater London, and northern Wiltshire. There is also one team from Hampshire.The league...
Division One West.
Cirencester Ladies Netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
Club has three squads. The A team play in the 1st division of the Gloucestershire League. The B team in the 3rd Division and the C team in the 5th Division.
The Rugby Club
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
are based at the Whiteway. They have four main teams, a colts, a Youth and Mini sections.
Cirencester Polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
Club, the oldest polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
club in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
has its main grounds are located in Earl Bathurst
Earl Bathurst
Earl Bathurst, of Bathurst in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1772 for Allen Bathurst, 1st Baron Bathurst. He was a politician and an opponent of Sir Robert Walpole...
's Cirencester Park. It is frequently used by The Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
and his sons The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry
Prince Harry of Wales
Prince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
.
Cirencester Car Club
Cirencester Car Club
In 1948 Jim Loveday and Bill Stallworthy were founder members of the Cirencester Motorcycle Club. They were instrumental in getting racing going at Chedworth Aerodrome for bikes and they held several races there in the period 1948-50...
is one of the oldest car
Čar
Čar is a village in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 296 people.-References:...
clubs in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Cirencester Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
Club, has three senior Saturday league teams, a Friendly team and an Evening side. It also has a youth section, catering for children aged 6–17. Cirencester Cricket Club is situated in Lord Bathurst's Park, near to Cirencester Deer Park School.
Education
The town and the surrounding area have several primary schools and two secondary schools, Deer Park SchoolCirencester Deer Park School
Cirencester Deer Park School is a Comprehensive Secondary school in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England.The school was founded in 1966, and combined the Secondary Modern with the Grammar School. It is situated at the top of Tetbury Hill, an area which previously was the site of a World War II...
located on the Stroud Road and Kingshill School
Cirencester Kingshill School
Cirencester Kingshill School is a Comprehensive school located on the south east side of Cirencester, Gloucestershire in England. Opened in 1976, it is one of two secondary schools serving Cirencester and the surrounding area....
off the London Road. It also offers an independent school, catering for 3-18 year olds, Rendcomb College
Rendcomb College
Rendcomb College is a co-educational boarding and day school for 3 to 18-year-olds, located in the village of Rendcomb five miles north of Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference....
. The town used to have a 500 year old grammar school
Cirencester Grammar School
Cirencester Grammar School was a grammar school in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, founded in about 1461 and closed in 1966.-History:Princess Alexandra of Kent visited the school on 23 July 1958 as part of its quincentenary celebrations....
, which in 1966 joined with the secondary modern to form Cirencester Deer Park School
Cirencester Deer Park School
Cirencester Deer Park School is a Comprehensive Secondary school in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England.The school was founded in 1966, and combined the Secondary Modern with the Grammar School. It is situated at the top of Tetbury Hill, an area which previously was the site of a World War II...
. In 1991 Cirencester College
Cirencester College
Cirencester College is a tertiary college with its main campus situated on the outskirts of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The college also has premises at The Castle, Cecily Hill, Cirencester and in Tetbury at the Tetbury centre. A number of other venues are used for part-time courses...
was created, taking over the sixth form of Deer Park. It is located adjacent to Deer Park School.
The town also hosts the Royal Agricultural College
Royal Agricultural College
The Royal Agricultural College is a higher education institution located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK. Established in 1845, it was the first agricultural college in the English speaking world...
which is located between the Stroud and Tetbury Roads.
Culture
The Sundial Theatre, part of Cirencester CollegeCirencester College
Cirencester College is a tertiary college with its main campus situated on the outskirts of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The college also has premises at The Castle, Cecily Hill, Cirencester and in Tetbury at the Tetbury centre. A number of other venues are used for part-time courses...
, hosts drama and musical events by community groups and professional touring companies.
Cirencester Operatic Society and Cirencester Philharmonia orchestra are also resident in the town.
Notable people
- Tony AdamsTony Adams (footballer)Tony Alexander Adams, MBE is an English football manager and former player.Adams spent his entire playing career of 22 years as a defender at Arsenal. He is considered one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time by the club's own fans and was included in the Football League 100 Legends...
, Arsenal and England footballer - Pam AyresPam AyresPam Ayres MBE is an English poet, songwriter and presenter of radio and television programmes. Her 1975 appearance on the television talent show Opportunity Knocks led to a variety of appearances on TV and radio shows, a one woman touring stage show and performing before the Queen.-Early life:Pam...
, poet, actor, broadcaster - Jacquie de CreedJacquie de CreedJacqueline Balmer was an English stuntwoman and presenter, and holder of the Long Distance Car Ramp Jump Record. During the 1980s she became famous in the United Kingdom for staging a series of spectacular car stunts...
, stunt woman - Robin InceRobin InceRobin Ince is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage .-Stand-up comedy:...
, comedian, actor - Dom JolyDom JolyDominic John Romulus "Dom" Joly is a British television comedian and journalist. He came to note as the star of Trigger Happy TV, a hidden camera show that was sold to over seventy countries worldwide...
, comedian, journalist, broadcaster - Cozy PowellCozy PowellColin Flooks , better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands.-Early history:...
, drummer