Cirencester reminds me of a precious antique wrapped in newspaper.
The town is bypassed by a ring road which has acted as a magnet
for the usual green-field sprawl of inharmonious, tin-box, light
industrial and retail units. Nothing relates to anything else:
colours clash, car drivers tear around in alienated haste, and
the pedestrian is reduced to insignificance.
In the town centre, several centuries of building blend together harmoniously - the use of limestone throughout creates a continuity which masks individual differences in style. This is a striking characteristic of all Cotswold towns and villages, but it is more pronounced in Cirencester because the town is old and important and large enough to contain many different types of building.
Cirencester, or Corinium as it was called then, was the second most important Roman city in the province of Britannia, and only Londinium was larger. Nearby cities were Glevum (Gloucester) and Aquae Sulis (Bath). There are still visible remains of the Roman town, and if you don't mind struggling across the ring-road sprawl on the periphery you will find a Roman amphitheatre adjacent to the town hospital. You can also see a 30 yard stretch of Roman wall in the town. The Corinium Museum is a small but high quality exhibition of Roman remains from Corinium and the surrounding area, and includes several large mosaics and reconstructions of Romano-British life. Don't miss it.
Corinium fell into complete decay after the 5th. century, and the disciplined Roman street plan was buried beneath an organically-planned medieval town. The medieval town was dominated by the Abbey, and dominated appears to be the correct word - relationships between the citizens of Cirencester and the Abbey were often strained as the Abbey controlled much of the economic life of the town. As an inhabitant of Cirencester put it:
"The Abbot blessed you, as rector of the parish church. Your grain had to be ground on his mills on the Churn [a local river], and if you hanged, it was upon his gallows and at his orders"
The thoroughness with which abbey buildings throughout the Cotswolds were raised to the ground at the Reformation suggests that many were happy to see the abbeys go. Some abbeys, such as the surviving portions of the abbey church at Malmesbury, survived only because they were purchased by private citizens. Nothing remains of Cirencester's medieval abbey except for a fine gatehouse, and the abbey grounds are laid out as a large public park just behind the market square. There are many mature specimen trees, there is lots of shade, a playground, and you can rest your feet after tramping around the streets.
The Church of St. John in the market square is one of the finest town churches in England, rivaling many cathedrals. It was built by the townspeople in defiance of the adjacent abbey using money given by Henry IV as a reward for loyalty. The tower was begun early in the 15th. century, and the great South Porch was built in 1490. Chapels were added by wealthy wool merchants, some of whom are commemorated in brasses in the Trinity Chapel, including Robert Page, who had one wife, six sons, and eight daughters. The church also has on display a Tudor gilt cup made for Queen Anne Bolyn in 1535, two years before her execution by Henry VIII.
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Castle Street, Cirencester. The buildings to the left in the picture, which look old, were built
in the last century, while the building to the right, which looks newer, was built in Palladian style in 1730 as a house for a
wool merchant.
This faux-medieval castle in Cecily Hill was actually a barracks built in late-Victorian times.
Church of St. John the Baptist
Cottage, Cirencester Park . A fine example of Cotswold style, and it sits
adjacent to the barracks in the left of the picture. Somehow, by a miracle of oolitic limestone,
they co-exist happily.
Gatehouse to the 12th.C Abbey
Hospital of St. John the Evangelist
Some houses in Cecily Hill
Corinium
Museum - a selection of pictures
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As a visitor it is easy to spend a full day just walking around Cirencester. We bought a little leaflet from the Tourist Information Office in the market square titled "Cirencester - a town walk", published by the Cirencester Civic Society. It was very cheap and took us to places we would never have found, pointing out architectural and historical details.
As special points of interest you might like to visit the following:
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