Description
Cirencester (popularly Ciceter), a market-town, the head of a poor-law union and county court district, and a parish in Gloucestershire. The town stands at the meeting-point of the Fosse Way, Akeman Street, Tcknield Street, and Ermine Street, on the river Churn, at a branch of the Thames and Severn Canal, 12 1/2 miles by road and 16 by railway E by S of Stroud, and 95 by railway from London. It has a station at the terminus of a branch of the G.W.R., and another on the Midland and South-Western Junction railway. It occupies the site of an ancient British town, called Caer-Cori, and of a Roman town, called Corinum or Duro-Cornovium, and was the capital of the Dobuni. Traces of the ancient town have been observed round a circuit of upwards of 2 miles, vestiges of a Roman amphitheatre are seen in what is called the Bull Ring, and very many Roman relics, including coins, urns, statues, altars, inscriptions, pavements, and hypocausts, have been found. Environing walls continued to stand, or were reconstructed in the Saxon times, but suffered demolition in the reign of Henry IV., and a castle of some note comes into view in the time of the Empress Maud, but was destroyed in the reign of Henry III. The town was occupied by the Danes in 878, witnessed a great council of Canute in 1020, suffered severely in the wars of Stephen, was the scene of great military events in the times of John and Henry IV., and was stormed in 1642-43 by Rupert, and afterwards given up to Essex. A college of prebendaries was founded at. it in the early Saxon times, and an abbey of black canons or Augus-tinians, stately and rich, succeeded this in 1117, and was given at the dissolution to Roger Bassinge, by whom the buildings were pulled down with the exception of a Norman arched gateway which still remains, and is called the Spital Gate. The site was granted by Queen Elizabeth to her physician, Richard Master, who built a house thereon, in which Charles I. was received by Sir William Master in 1643. Cirencester Abbey, the present mansion, still the seat of the Master family was erected about 1780 on the site of the former house.
The town is governed by a local board of fifteen members
The town is governed by a local board of fifteen members. It is well built, and presents a modern appearance, with but few traces of its antiquity. It has a good trade, and is known as the " Metropolis of the Cotswolds." The Corinium Museum, founded by the fourth Earl Bathurst, contains the tessellated pavements found in 1849, and many other relics of the Roman occupation found in Cirencester and the neighbourhood. The Church of St John the Baptist belongs chiefly to the Perpendicular period, and is the largest parish church in the county. It consists of nave, aisles with a N chapel, chancel with two N chapels, and one on the S side, S porch, and a W tower 134 feet high, with a peal of 12 bells. The S porch or gatehouse has three storeys, the uppermost of which, the par vis, was originally used as a church-house, and subsequently devoted to general parochial purposes as a town-hall. Traces of Early English work occur in the chancel, and St Catherine's chapel has a beautiful stone roof of fan-tracery, said to have been brought from the abbey church. The brasses are numerous, dating from about 1360. The church also contains some interesting frescoes and monuments of the Bathurst, Master, and other families. The church was restored in 1867 by Sir Gilbert Scott. Holy TrinityChurch was erected in 1851. There are Roman Catholic, Congregational, Baptist, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and Unitarian chapels, and a meeting-house for the Society of Friends. The chief public buildings are the town-hall, the corn exchange, the temperance hall, the Apsley hall, used for public meetings, &c., and the cottage hospital. The Royal Agricultural College, about 1 mile from the town, is a handsome Gothic building containing museum, lecture-theatre, laboratories, class-rooms, library, chapel, &c.; attached to the college is a farm of 500 acres. It was established and incorporated by charter in 1845 for the purpose of teaching scientific agriculture. A grammar school was founded in the reign of Henry VII. by Bishop Ruthal, but the endowment, together with that of two free schools, has been utilized by the Charity Commissioners to provide an upper school for boys in connection with the elementary schools. There are almshouses and other charities, and a cemetery, with two mortuary chapels, is about a mile from the town.
The town has a head post office, two railway stations, two banks, is a seat of petty sessions, and publishes a weekly newspaper. It is the headquarters of the Royal North Gloucestershire Militia, now the 4th battalion of the Gloucestershire regiment. Markets are held on Mondays, and fairs on Easter Monday and the first Monday of Aug., Sept., Oct., and Nov. Woollen manufacture was formerly extensive, but has greatly declined. The present trade is chiefly agricultural, but includes some cutlery. There is a large baconcuring establishment, and also an iron foundry, a brewery, raalting houses, and grist mills. The town sent two members to Parliament from the time of Elizabeth till 1867; from that date till 1885 it had one member; since 1885 it has been merged in a division of the county. Richard of Cirencester, who flourished in the latter part of the 14th century and wrote an account of Roman Britain, was a native; and the Duke of Portland takes from the town the title of Baron. The parish includes the tithings of Barton, Chesterton, and Wiggold. Acreage, 5286 ; population, 7521. Oak-ley Park, the seat of Earl Bathurst, adjoins the town. The mansion was erected by Henry, Earl of Danby, and passed in 1695 to Sir Benjamin Bathurst, whose son, the first Earl Bathurst, the friend of Pope, devoted much attention to laying out the fine park and woods of over 3000 acres in extent. The ancient high cross of Cirencester is erected in the park, which contains also the kennels of the Vale of White Horse Foxhounds; there is also a deer park. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £250 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
Cirencester Parliamentary Division, or East Gloucestershire, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 53,341. The division includes the following: £ Campden £Admington, Aston-sub-Edge, Chipping Campden, Clifford Chambers, Clopton, Cowhoneybourne, Dorsington, Ebrington, Hidcote Bartrim, Lark Stoke, Marston Sicca, Mickleton, Pebworth, Preston-on-Stour, Quinton, Sainfcbury, Welford, Weston-on-Avon, Weston-sub-Edge, Willersey; Moreton - in - Marsh £Batsford, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Le-mington, Moreton-in-Marsh, Toddenham ; Fairford £Bi-bury, Coin (St Aldwin's), Eastleach Martin, Eastleach Turville, Fairford, Hatherop, Kempsford, Lechlade, Maisey Hampton, Poulton, Quennington, Southrop; Stow £Addle-strop, Bledington, Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadwell, Clapton, Condicote, Donnington, Eyford, Great Barrington, Iccomb, Iccomb Church, Longborough, Maugersbury, Naunton and Harford, Notgrove. Oddington, Rissington (Great), Rissington (Little), Rissington Wick, Seasoncote, Slaughter (Lower), Slaughter (Upper), Stow-on-the-Wold, Swell (Lower), Swell (Upper), Westcote; Tetbury £Beverstone, Boxwell and Leigh-terton, Cherington, Didmarton, Kingscote, Newington Bag-path, Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Ozleworth, Shipton Moyne, Tetbury, Westonbirt and Lasborough ; Northleach £Aldsworth, Aston Blank, Chedworth, Coin Rogers, Coin (St Denis), Compton Abdale, Dowdeswell, Eastington (tithing), Farm-ington, Hampnett, Hazleton, Little Barrington, Northleach, Salperton, Sevenhampton, Sherborne, Shipton Oliffe, Ship-ton Sollars, Stowell, Turkdean, Whittington, Windrush, Win-son, Withington, Yanworth ; Cirencester £Ampney Crucis, Ampney (St Mary), Ampney (St Peter), Bagendon, Barnsley, Baunton, Brimpsfield, Cerney (North), Cemey (South), Cirencester, Coates, Colesbourne, Daglingworth, Down-Ampney, Driffield, Dunsbourne Abbots and Lear, Dunsbourne Rouse, Edgeworth, Elkstone, Harnhill, Preston, Rendcomb, Rod-marton, Sapperton, Siddington, Stratton, Syde, Winstone.
