Norman conquerors, castles and cloisters
So where does Cirencester fit in?
By 1068 the west country was under the control of the Norman
army, who quickly built castles in many towns, including
Cirencester. There is very little written evidence for this castle
although it was recorded that in 1142 its ‘rampart and outworks’
were ‘razed to the ground’.
No trace of it remains today except for the name Castle Street.
Henry I was the son of William the Conqueror. He founded the
Abbey of St Mary on the site of a small Saxon church, where the
Abbey Grounds are today. Some of the abbey walls can be seen in
Gosditch St; the Spitalgate or Norman Arch also remains .
Church control and Charter markets
So where does Cirencester fit in?
Henry I was the son of William the Conqueror. He founded
the Abbey of St Mary on the site of a small Saxon church,
where the Abbey Grounds are today.
The Hospital of St John The Evangelist was founded, to care
for the destitute and sick. Its arches can be seen in Spitalgate
Lane.
Henry I provided for a Parish Church for the townspeople,
alongside the Abbey. The two religious buildings grew up
side by side and were granted further income and land by his
son Henry II. The Parish Church was enlarged over the
centuries into the building we see today.
With such royal support the Abbey also prospered...
The Abbey had an abbot at the head of the monastery. As well
as being the religious leader he was allowed to be the Lord of
Well, someone had to
the Manor.
lead
the to
way
to the
Glory
Abbots therefore had the
right
collect
taxes
and free
of God! Their stewards could collect
services from the townspeople.
payments from market traders and have first pick of the
market goods; all the profits from Market Place fairs went to
them. They made money from wool trading and built mills on
the River Churn that the locals had to pay to use, at one point
confiscating and destroying private ones!
Business got so good that one abbot had the South Porch built
on to the Parish Church with
its large room for rent
collecting and business
affairs.
In 1306 the abbot at the time closed the town court
and imposed his own rule of law. The Hospital in
Spitalgate was taken over also.
The townspeople often tried to complain about their
unfair treatment to the Royal Courts but successive
abbots always managed to bribe or persuade their way
back into control. The Abbey was always very
unpopular with the locals!
People think the Parish Church is
The abbots
had control
overmarks
of the
my Abbey...
now only
in town and its
the Abbey
businessthe
forgrass
400 in
years
until Grounds
the Abbey was closed
show
where it stood.
down and
demolished
at the order of Henry VIII. Some
of the abbey walls can be seen in Gosditch St; the
Spitalgate or Norman Arch also remains .
Elizabethan estates – wealth for some
So where does Cirencester fit in?
The familiar landmarks of the Abbey Grounds
and Cirencester Park sandwich the centre of
Cirencester to this day. Both estates were
originally sold or given to Tudor nobles by
Henry VIII and Edward VII after the closing down
of the Abbey.
It was during Henry VIII’s daughter’s reign, Elizabeth I, that great
houses were built and the influence of their owners on the town
increased. Both estates had become the property of the Queen.
Elizabeth I gave Oakley Manor (now Cirencester Park) to her
Treasurer, Sir Thomas Parry who later sold it to Sir John Danvers.
She sold the Abbey site to her doctor, Richard Master, and
gave him a silver cup that had belonged to her mother, Anne
Boleyn, one of Henry’s six wives. This can be seen in a special
safe in the Parish Church.
There are tombs and brasses in the Parish Church that show how
wealthy some of the Cirencester families became at this time, like
that of Humfry Bridges and his respectful, and large, family.
A Cirencester man who became very wealthy from wool dealing
was John Coxwell, who bought some of the former abbey land
from Elizabeth I. He probably lived in Abbot St, now renamed
Coxwell St. He lived to be over 100, only dying then after falling off
his horse! He left in his will houses in Dollar St, Abbot St, Thomas
St and properties in Gloucester and local villages.
Stuart street life and Civil War
So where does Cirencester fit in?
The town had its share of action in these troubled times. This is
an artist’s impression of the time the
townspeople attacked the coach of
Lord Chandos, who in 1642 arrived to
raise support for Charles I. Chandos
escaped, rescued by the local gentry,
but it was now very clear which side
the town was on - Cirencester supported Parliament. So when
Charles I made his headquarters at Oxford he sent Prince
Rupert and his Royalist army to capture it in 1643.
There are enough contemporary accounts of the
fighting for us to have a fairly clear picture of
what took place that cold February day. The
clever epitaph on the wall in the Parish Church, to
Hodgkinson Paine who died defending
his colours, is a window back through time.
The centre of town in the 17th century was a very different scene
Staytourist
away from
the we see today, with or
from the gentle shopping and
haven
dirty beggar children,
without opposing forces attacking
each other!
my dears...
Today’s Market Place was divided into lanes and slums and
different market areas. The eastern end was the Chepyng St pig
Market (now the start of Dyer St ) separated from the other market
in front of the South Porch by The Shambles.
At the other end were Shoe Lane, Butter Row and Butcher or
Botcher Row with their tumbling shops and tenements.
The noise, dirt and lack of control meant the town had to appoint
a Beadle of Beggars in 1618 – he had an interesting
list of duties! The streets were packed with inns and
taverns, mostly now disappeared. It is claimed that
the disguised Charles II hid overnight in the Sun Inn
(next to The Fleece) before his restoration as the
next king.