The Roman Period
Cirencesters recorded history begins soon after the invasion of Britain by the Emperor Claudius in AD 43. In the following years the victorious army over-ran the West
Country, after a stern campaign led by the future Emperor Vespasian at the head of the 2nd Augustan Legion. In order to link up this army group with the forces fighting further north, a road known as the
Fosse Way was constructed about AD 47 linking the Exeter area with Lincoln in a military zone which passed through the Cotswolds
Graphical interpretation of the amphitheatre.
The future site of Cirencester was selected for one of the forts for patrolling troops and there is some evidence of a larger fort built nearby soon after.
Tombstones of two auxiliary cavalrymen, Genialis of the Thracian and Dannicus of the Indus Horse, have been found in Watermoor.
Later, about AD 75 after the frontier had moved forward to Wales and the North, a town was established beside the River Churn as the chief city and administrative
centre for the British tribe known as the Dobunni. Their tribal centre was at Bagendon, some four miles north of Cirencester, where some earthworks survive
today and excavations have revealed coin-mints and many pre-Roman artefacts. These together with coins of kings of the tribe are in the Corinium Museum in Cirencester.
However, the arrival of the Romans and the growth of the new town of Corinium seems to correspond with decline at Bagendon. The new centre, now known as
Cirencester, was originally called Corinium Dobunnorum. When the defences were constructed in the 2nd century, it was the second largest town in Britain, covering
240 acres, compared with the 330 of London.
Most of these defences have disappeared, but their line on the eastern side can be traced in the form of an earthen bank alongside the river in the Abbey Grounds
(where a section is exposed to view) and along Beeches Road to the City Bank Playing Field in Watermoor, where a footpath runs along the top of the bank. The
rampart, at first built only of earth, was later faced by an external wall of stone, which for the most part was progressively removed in succeeding centuries as building
stone or for road repairs in the district.
There were at least four gates in the encircling walls of Corinium through which the great Roman highway routes crossed in the centre of the Roman town, now indicated
by the crossing from South Way to Tower Street where it cuts Lewis Lane. Ermin Street on the NW-SE axis passed through the gates leading to Gloucester and Wales
and extended south to Silchester and the south coast. The Fosse Way and Akeman Street, from Lincoln and Colchester respectively, converged at the north-east gate
and continued as one road to Bath and the south-west. There were no doubt other more local routes.
Within the town, very little of the rectangular street system has survived, although a great deal of information has been revealed by excavation. The focal point of the
street system and nucleus of the towns life was the Forum, a large open market place surrounded by colonnaded shops. The area is roughly indicated by the line of the
modern streets of Lewis Lane, Tower Street and The Avenue.
On its south side stood a huge public building, the Basilica. This building was 102 metres long and 29 metres wide and served as the town hall and the courts of justice.
Nothing survives above ground although the apsidal western end of the Basilica, where the seat of judgment was placed, is marked out in the roadway at the junction
of The Avenue and Tower Street and a plaque is mounted nearby.
Corinium must have contained many shrines dedicated to Roman and native deities. During the construction of Ashcroft Road, a representation of the three Celtic
Mother Goddesses, the Deae Matres, was uncovered and this and other fine religious sculptures can be seen in the Museum.
The most important cult, however, seems to have been that of Jupiter, but in a native form in which a column was set up crowned by a group of statuary. The fine capital
of such a sacred column was found in 1838 near the museum.
There is also an inscription recording the restoration of a similar column by Septimius, a governor of one of the four provinces into which Britain was divided
during the 4th century AD. It was in the 4th century that Corinium seems to have been the centre of the general wealth of the Cotswolds and on the evidence available
was probably the capital of the Province of Britannia Prima. At the peak of its prosperity it must indeed have been a splendid city and excavation has shown the
presence of wide colonnaded streets, imposing public buildings and richly furnished private houses, many decorated with fine mosaics and painted wall plaster - the
typical trappings in fact of Roman urban civilisation to be found in one of the largest and most important towns of the Empire. The amphitheatre, to the west of the town,
still stands as a monument to Roman engineering and can be visited.
When in the 5th century Roman rule officially came to an end, urban life probably lingered on inside the wall. Some Saxons came to settle in nearby Fairford in the
upper Thames valley, but not until Cuthwin and Ceawlin took the offensive in AD 577 and defeated three British kings at the Battle of Dyrham did Cirencester fall into Saxon hands.
The Saxon and Medieval Town
Cirencester was an important centre in the Saxon period, but little tangible evidence
survives. Burials and the site of the minster church are all that remain to reflect its former status.
The burials were discovered in 1909 at The Barton, on the edge of Cirencester Park, and included that of a warrior buried with his spear and shield. His grave had been
dug through the fourth-century Orpheus mosaic which is now on display in the Corinium Museum.
The Saxon settlement itself was probably sited in the vicinity of the present Cecily Hill, to the north-west of the abandoned Roman city. Vestiges of the principal Roman
streets survived but the later Saxon and medieval urban development adopted a quite different alignment from that of the Roman town.
The minster church, founded in the 9th or 10th century, was probably a royal foundation. It survived into the 12th century, to be replaced by the Augustinian
abbey of St Mary. Both Anglo-Saxon church and medieval abbey lay to the north of the parish church, and the site is now marked out in the Abbey Grounds with an explanatory plaque.
At the Norman Conquest the royal manor of Cirencester was granted to the Earl of Hereford, William Fitz-Osbern, but by 1075 it had reverted back to the Crown. The
Domesday Survey of 1086 records âthe new marketâ of Cirencester, which paid an annual toll of 20s and attracted trade from the surrounding area. It is difficult to
imagine now, but throughout the medieval period the townscape would have been dominated by the bulk of the great abbey church with its central tower,
overshadowing the parish church and houses clustered around its precinct.
Cirencester Abbey was founded by Henry I in 1117, and following half a century of building work during which the Saxon minster was demolished, the great abbey
church was finally dedicated in 1176. Building work was interrupted by the civil war between Matilda and Stephen when another of Cirencesterâs landmarks was
destroyed without trace: the castle. Documentary records show that this was a wooden structure, fortified by Matilda, but attacked and burnt by Stephen in 1142. Its
probable site is somewhere in the area of the present mansion house.Fenestration - The Church Porch/Old Town Hall
Thus for more than four centuries the great Augustinian Abbey of St Mary and the parish church of St John the Baptist stood side by side, to the
north of the busy market place. As lord of the manor, the abbot had jurisdiction over the market rights and drew rates from all the transactions. His power was absolute
in matters of law and order, and at times abbot and citizens were in fierce dispute.
The Norman Arch
At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, Henry VIII ordered the total demolition of the buildings so that today the Norman Arch and parts of
the precinct wall are all that remain above ground of the old abbey.
The town had a grammar school founded in 1458. There were many charities founded by townsmen and women for the benefit of the poor and
sick, many of which survive to this day. The Hospital of St John in Spitalgate was originally founded by Henry II, and the St Thomass Hospital in Thomas Street was
founded by Sir William Nottingham, for four poor weavers, in 1483.
Sheep rearing, wool sales, weaving and cloth-making were the main strengths of Englands trade in the Middle Ages, and many Cirencester merchants and clothiers
took advantage of the wealth and prosperity to be gained from national and international trade.
Their tombs survive 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 largest parish church in Gloucestershire, often referred to as the Cathedral of the Cotswolds.
17th and 18th Centuries
Peace was shattered in February 1643 when Royalists and Parliamentarians fought in the streets of Cirencester during the first Civil War. Over 300 were killed and 1200
prisoners were held captive in the church. The townsfolk supported the Parliamentarians but gentry and clergy were for the old order, so much so that when
Charles I was executed in 1649 the minister, Alexander Gregory, wrote in the parish register, O England what didst thou do, the 30th of this month.
The restoration of the monarchy was welcomed by many and the 17th century saw the development of the two private estates which came to encircle the town.
Following the dissolution of the monasteries the abbeys property had been redistributed amongst favoured courtiers. The Oakley manor was given to Sir Thomas
Parry, treasurer to Elizabeth I, and in 1564 he sold the site of the abbey to the Queens personal physician, Dr Richard Master. Both began to build fine Elizabethan houses,
set within landscaped grounds and parkland.
Parry sold the Oakley estate to Sir John Danvers in 1563, who in turn sold to Sir Benjamin Bathurst in 1695. His son, the first Earl Bathurst, was responsible for the
extensive landscaping of Cirencester Park, with its broad avenues and follies dotted amongst an extensive wooded park. The Abbey House of the Chester-Masters was
demolished in 1964 and the grounds were given to the town, and now provide a pleasant parkland oasis behind the parish church. At the end of the 18th century
Cirencester was a thriving market town, at the centre of a network of turnpike roads with easy access to markets for its produce of grain and wool. In 1789 the opening of
a branch of the Thames and Severn Canal provided a transport link to markets further afield including via the river Thames to London.
19th Century to the Present Day
The population had expanded but the town was still confined to an area half the size of the Roman town. As elsewhere, overcrowding and poor sanitation were rife. The
next generation took the first big step towards serious change. The lord of the manor, the Earl Bathurst, and Miss Jane Master, owner of the Abbey Estate, combined with
others to promote an Act of Parliament to set up a Commission for improving the town.
As major landowners they gave up their private rights in certain common land, the commoners were compensated and land at Kingsmeadow was sold to fund the work.
From its beginnings in 1825 until its role was taken over by the Cirencester Local Board in 1876 (itself later replaced by the Urban District Council), the Commissioners
worked to improve the living and working conditions of the townâs rapidly expanding population.
Over the centuries temporary market stalls had gradually been replaced by more permanent structures and buildings until by the early 19th century the area in front of
the church porch was tightly packed with groups of houses and shops in Shoe Lane, Butter Row, Botcher Row and The Shambles. These were swept away about 1830 and
the area opened up to give the wide market place which exists today. Drains and sewers were dug, open watercourses were culverted, paving stones were laid, street
cleaners were employed, and regular policemen were appointed to control law and order. A gasometer was built in Watermoor in 1833 and gas lights replaced oil lights
in the streets, with the lamplighter taking up his duties as dusk fell.
In 1841 a branch railway line was opened to Kemble to provide a link to the Great Western Railway at Swindon. The station building, designed by Brunel, still stands,
opposite the original Corinium Museum building in Tetbury Road. The Midland and South Western Junction Railway also had a station and extensive locomotive works
at Watermoor, opened in 1883. In this way from then until the 1960s, Cirencester was served by two railway lines, providing passenger and freight links to all points of the
compass. By 1847 the town centre improvements had removed the cattle market from the centre of the town to a purpose-built market adjacent to the GWR station.
The cultural life of the town expanded and a number of clubs and institutions were started. A public subscription library was opened in 1835. The Wilts and
Gloucestershire Standard newspaper, which had started life in Malmesbury in 1837, moved to Cirencester in 1840 and soon developed a wide circulation. The writer
Richard Jefferies was once a local reporter here, and vigorous campaigns to extend the franchise and improve the townâs facilities were fully reported in its pages.
Private benefactors included most notably Daniel George Bingham who funded the building of the Bingham Library, opened in 1905 and the Bingham Hall which was
opened in 1908. By the mid-19th century, cloth making and edge tool making in the town had almost ceased, but trade in corn and cheese continued and a new covered
market hall, the Corn Hall, was built in the Market Place, opening in 1863.
The Corn Hall
The growing population of the town necessitated the building of a second church, and in 1850 Sir Gilbert Scott built Holy Trinity Church at
Watermoor. A similar increase in people attending non-conformist chapels led to new places of worship for Baptists, Methodists and Congregationalists, and the Roman Catholic Church in Ashcroft was built
in 1896.
In 1894 the passing of the Local Government Act brought into existence Cirencesters first independent elected body, the Urban District Council. For three years meetings
were held in the former town hall above the church porch, but in 1897 the Council moved to premises in Castle Street before transferring to Gosditch Street in1932.
Local government reorganisation in 1974 led to the demise of the Urban District Council, replaced by the present two-tier system of Cotswold District Council and
Cirencester Town Council. The District Council occupies the former Union Workhouse in Trinity Road, while the Town Council has its offices in Dyer House in Dyer Street.
The history of Cirencester in the 20th century has yet to be written; as with so many market towns, there were many changes and considerable town expansion. Housing
development has extended the towns boundaries, with residential areas on almost all approaches to the town. Only from the west does the extensive area of Cirencester
Park (itself a grade one parkland) provide a buffer.
Early development of land at The Whiteway was followed by The Mead and Bowling Green areas in 1933, and the Chesterton estate in 1938.
After the Second World War, building on the Beeches Estate began, and in the early 1970s redevelopment of land at Watermoor and the former Abbey Estate extended the
housing provision within the town.
More recently estates on the periphery have extended the towns limits even further. Commercial development is centred on designated land at Love Lane, which was an
early example of a business park, while within the town a real attempt has been made to provide sympathetic office space within listed buildings.
Public services and facilities both within and around the town centre include a Police Station and Magistrates Court in South Way, a Leisure Centre off the Tetbury Road,
a refurbished Museum in Park Street and a single-site Hospital at The Querns. Edge-of-town shopping and college and school facilities also serve the needs of the community.
Transport links have changed dramatically in recent years. The loss of canal and rail links has led to a total dependence on road transport. An inner ring road system was
completed in 1975 in an attempt to reduce town-centre congestion, and has now been augmented by an outer bypass with the dualling of the A417. Within the town centre
car parks at The Forum, Brewery, Town Station, Beeches Road, and The Waterloo provide access to the town centre shops, pubs and restaurants. Traffic-calming
measures are currently under consideration to improve the safety and environment for both pedestrians and motorists.
But it is not all tarmac and concrete. Cirencester residents and visitors can enjoy the green lungs provided by the open spaces and parks which survive within the town in
the Abbey Grounds, St Michaels Field, and Cirencester Park. These are reminders not only of the towns interesting history but also of individuals and benefactors who
over the years have added to its public amenities.
View of the Church - Abbey Grounds
A last word on street names, which are as fascinating in Cirencester as in many historic towns. Shoe Lane may have gone, but there is still Dollar
Street (Dole Hall Street after the almshouse gate of the medieval abbey) and Coxwell Street, named after the Coxwell family, 17th century clothiers who lived there (and formerly Abbot Street). Round the
corner is Black Jack Street, the origins of which are still in dispute. A favourite explanation is the alignment of the street with the former statue of St John which, soot-blackened (hence Black
Jack), was removed from its niche high up in the church tower many years ago. There are plenty more such stories to be unearthed in a wander around the town.
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