Cirencester ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the Thames. Cirencester is the eighth largest settlement in Gloucestershire and the largest town within the Cotswolds. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural University, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world, founded in 1840. The town had a population of 20,229 in 2021. The earliest known reference to the town was by Ptolemy in AD 150. The town's Corinium Museum has an extensive Roman collection.

Etymology

thumb|upright|The Fleece Hotel

Cirencester's name is first attested by Ptolemy in around 150 AD, though the earliest surviving manuscripts are from the thirteenth century. These give various slightly different spellings, of which the original seems to have been (). The etymology of this name is, however, unknown. The same name is found in the River Churn, which passes through the town (and which, with the addition of the Old English word ('river') in turn gave its name to North Cerney, South Cerney, and Cerney Wick).

Corinum may have persisted as Caer Cori in Brittonic as stated by Asser. Later it was known in the form of Cair Ceri in writings of Nennius The Old English c was pronounced . The Normans mispronounced the sound as , resulting in the modern name Cirencester ().<!--Please leave in the final /r/s. These are part of the word, even in RP--> The form , spelled Cirencester or Ciceter, was once used locally. This pronunciation is humorously highlighted in a 1928 limerick from Punch:

These forms are now very rarely used, while many local people abbreviate the name to Ciren ().. Today, it is usually (as it is spelt) or , although occasionally it is , or .

History

thumb|The Roman amphitheatre

Roman Corinium

Cirencester is known to have been an important early Roman area, along with St Albans and Colchester, and the town includes evidence of significant area roadworks. The Romans built a castra (fort) where the Fosse Way crossed the Churn, to hold two quingenary (i.e. 500 men) alae tasked with helping to defend the provincial frontier around AD 49, and native Dobunni were drawn from Bagendon, a settlement to the north, to create a civil settlement near the fort. When the frontier moved to the north after the conquest of Wales, this fort was closed and its fortifications levelled around the year 70, but the town persisted and flourished under the name Corinium.

Even in Roman times, there was a thriving wool trade and industry, which contributed to the growth of Corinium. A large forum and basilica were built over the site of the fort, and archaeological evidence shows signs of further civic growth. There are many Roman remains in the surrounding area, including several Roman villas near the villages of Chedworth and Withington. When a defensive wall was built around the Roman city in the late 2nd century, it enclosed , making Corinium the second-largest city by area in Roman Britain. The details of the provinces of Britain following the Diocletian Reforms around 296 remain unclear, but Corinium is now generally thought to have been the capital of Britannia Prima. Some historians would date to this period the pillar erected by the governor Lucius Septimus to the god Jupiter, a local sign of the pagan reaction against Christianity during the principate of Julian the Apostate.

Cirencester Amphitheatre still exists in an area known as the Querns to the south-west of the town, but has only been partially excavated. Investigations in the town show that it was fortified in the 5th or 6th centuries.

Post-Roman and Saxon

Linguist Andrew Breeze claims that Gildas received his later education in Cirencester in the early 6th century, showing that it was still able to provide an education in Latin rhetoric and law at that time. Possibly this was the palace of one of the British kings defeated by Ceawlin in 577.

In the 7th century, Cirencester was the site of the Battle of Cirencester, this time between the Mercian 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 made over to Augustinian canons in the 12th century and replaced by the great abbey church.

Norman

At the Norman Conquest in 1066, 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 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 abbots obtained charters in 1215 and 1253 for fairs during the octaves of All Saints and St Thomas the Martyr, and the significant wool trade gave these great importance.

The struggle of the townsmen to gain the rights and privileges of a borough for Cirencester probably began with the grant of 1189, when they were amerced for a false presentment, meaning that they had presented false information. 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.

Geography

thumb|left|Park Street

Cirencester lies on the lower dip slopes 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 River 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 village of Stratton, the suburb of Chesterton (originally a village outside the town), Watermoor and The Beeches. The village of Siddington to the south of the town is now almost contiguous with Watermoor. Other suburbs include Bowling Green and New Mills. The area and population of these five electoral wards are identical to that quoted above. The town serves as a centre for surrounding villages, providing employment, amenities, shops, commerce and education; it is a commuter town for larger centres such as Cheltenham, Gloucester, Swindon and Stroud.

Climate

Sites of interest

thumb|St John the Baptist parish church

The Grade I listed Church of St. John the Baptist is renowned for its Perpendicular Gothic porch, fan vaults and merchants' tombs.

The town also has a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St Peter; the foundation stone was laid on 20 June 1895. Coxwell Street to the north of Market Square was the original home of the Baptist Church that was founded in 1651, making it one of the oldest Baptist churches in England; the church moved in January 2017 to a new building on Chesterton Lane. The town's Salvation Army hall in Thomas Street occupies the former Temperance Hall built by the Quaker Christopher Bowly in 1846; it is the oldest such hall in the West of England. The Salvation Army first met in Cirencester in 1881.

To the west of the town is Cirencester Park, the seat of Earl Bathurst and the site of one of the finest landscape gardens in England; it was laid out by Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst after 1714. He inherited the estate from his father, Sir Benjamin Bathurst, a Tory MP and statesman; he made his wealth from his involvement in the slave trade through the Royal Africa Company and the East India Company.

Abbey House was a country house built on the site of the former Cirencester Abbey following its dissolution and demolition at the Reformation in the 1530s. The site was granted in 1564 to Richard Master, physician to 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 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.

The Corn Hall was designed by Medland, Maberly and Medland and completed in 1863.

Governance

thumb|upright|The former municipal offices in Gosditch Street

Before 1974, the town was administered by Cirencester Urban District Council, which was initially based in the upper floors of the south porch of the Church of St. John the Baptist. The council moved to offices in Castle Street in 1897 and to offices in Gosditch Street in 1932. In the 1974 reorganisation of local government, the urban district council was replaced by the new Cotswold District Council and Cirencester Town Council was created as the first tier of local government.

The Liberal Democrats won all of the eight available Cirencester seats on Cotswold District Council in May 2013.

Liberal Democrat candidate Joe Harris, aged 18, was elected to the district council for Cirencester Park Ward in May 2011, and became the youngest councillor in the country. Harris was also elected to the county council in the 2013 elections, winning the Cirencester Park Division.

Transport

Roads

Cirencester is the hub of a road network with routes to Gloucester (A417), Cheltenham (A417/A435), Warwick (A429), Oxford (A40 via the B4425 road), Wantage (A417), Swindon (A419), Chippenham (A429), Bath (A433) and Stroud (A419). The A417 also connects Cirencester to the M5 motorway at junction 11A, whilst the A419 connects the town to the M4 motorway at junction 15 east of Swindon. It is also signed from the M4 at junction 17 with the A429.

Buses

Bus operators serving Cirencester include:

  • Stagecoach West, which operates the 58 Circular service, connecting the town centre and Stratton
  • Cotswold Green, which runs services between Cirencester and Stroud.

Railway

thumb|The former Cirencester Town station building in 2014

Since Cirencester Watermoor station was closed in 1961 and the Kemble to Cirencester branch line to Cirencester Town station was closed to passengers in 1964, the town has been without its own station. The nearest station is now at Kemble, away. It is served by regular Great Western Railway trains between and .

There is an active campaign to restore the line from Kemble to Cirencester.

Air

The nearest international airport is Bristol. Cotswold Airport, for general aviation, is around to the south-west, near Kemble.

Education

The town and the surrounding area have several primary schools and two secondary schools, Cirencester Deer Park School on Stroud Road and Cirencester Kingshill School on Kingshill Lane. It also has an independent school, Rendcomb College, catering for 3 to 18-year-olds. 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 joint sixth form of Cirencester Deer Park and Cirencester Kingshill schools and the Cirencester site of Stroud College; it is adjacent to Deer Park School on Stroud Road.

Until 1994, the town had a private preparatory school, Oakley Hall. Run in its later years by the Letts family, it closed in 1994 shortly after the retirement of R. F. B. Letts who had led the school since 1962. The grounds of the school are now occupied by housing.

The Royal Agricultural University campus is between the Stroud and Tetbury Roads.

Culture

The Sundial Theatre at Cirencester College, the Bingham Hall and the Barn Theatre host drama and musical events by community groups and professional companies.

TinkCo (formerly Cirencester Operatic Society and Theatre Ink), Cirencester Philharmonia Orchestra, Cirencester Band, Cirencester Male Voice Choir and Cirencester Creative Dance Academy are also based in the town.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and ITV West from the Mendip TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter. The town's local radio stations are BBC Radio Gloucestershire on 95.8 FM, Heart West on 97.2, 102.2 and 102.4 FM, and Corinium Radio which is an online community radio station. The local newspaper is The Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard.

Sport

Cirencester Town F.C. plays in the Southern League Premier Division. The team, known as The Centurions, moved in 2002 from their former ground at Smithsfield on Tetbury Road to the purpose-built Corinium Stadium. It is designated by The Football Association as a Community Club. 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 five-a-side leagues throughout the year.

Cirencester has two athletics clubs: Cirencester Athletics & Triathlon Club and Running Somewhere Else.

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 Park Polo Club, founded in 1896, is the oldest polo club in the UK. Its main grounds are located in Earl Bathurst's Cirencester Park. It was used by The Prince of Wales and his sons The Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex.

Cirencester hosted its first closed road half marathon in November 2025 with 1,168 participants. In February 2026, Cirencester hosted its first closed road 10K run.

Twin towns

Cirencester is twinned with the town of Itzehoe, Germany; the commune of Saint-Genis-Laval, a suburb of Lyon, France; and the city of Bathurst, Australia.

Notable people

  • Pam Ayres, poet, actor, broadcaster
  • Elizabeth Brown, astronomer
  • Willie Carson, retired jockey, television commentator
  • Rev. Dr. John Clinch, clergyman-physician, the first man to practice vaccination in North America
  • Charlie Cooper, actor, writer
  • Daisy May Cooper, actor, writer
  • Frank Cadogan Cowper, the 'Last Pre-Raphaelite Artist'
  • Jacquie de Creed, stuntwoman
  • Peter Maxwell Davies, composer, director of music at Cirencester Grammar School from 1959 to 1962
  • Grace Hadow, suffragette, scholar and author
  • Dom Joly, comedian, journalist, broadcaster
  • Autumn Kelly (formerly Phillips), former wife of minor royal Peter Phillips
  • William Sinclair Marris, civil servant, colonial administrator, classical scholar
  • Mike Patto, musician
  • Cozy Powell, drummer
  • Lewis Charles Powles, artist
  • Michael Sleggs, actor
  • Theophila Townsend, Quaker writer and activist
  • John Woolrich, composer.

Listed building

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Finberg, HPR, "The Origin of Gloucestershire Towns" in Gloucestershire Studies, edited by H.P.R. Finberg. Leicester: University Press, 1957
  • Town Council
  • Detailed historical record about Cirencester Roman Amphitheatre
  • BBC archive film of Cirencester from 1979