Picture The Past
A whole-school local history project for
Cirencester Primary School
Cirencester - a ‘Chronological Acrostic’
Crossing the river
Iron Age homesteads and horses
Romans rule!
Early England – Facts or fiction?
Norman conquerors, castles and cloisters
Church control and Charter markets
Elizabethan estates – wealth for some
Stuart street life and Civil War
Turnpikes, Trade and Theatricals
Earnest Education
Railways, Troops and Children
Crossing the river
Local Interest:
Where Cirencester fits in...
A route crossing a river has always been
one of the reasons for the start of a
settlement.
Cirencester has developed where the
valley of the River Churn opens out into
terraces, sheltered by rising ground.
The ancient route called the Whiteway,
that drops down to cross the Churn, is still
marked to this day.
Iron Age homesteads and horses
So where does Cirencester fit in?
Iron Age families lived in the area that became
Corinium and then Cirencester.
Evidence for their homes and fields has been
uncovered as the new housing estates have been
built in the Kingshill area. These people were here
when the Roman army arrived and built its military
fort.
It seems likely that the local people kept up and
then returned to Iron Age traditions and ways of
life after the Roman occupation ended.
Romans rule!
So where does Cirencester fit in?
Our town was called Corinium by the Romans, who built a
military fort here soon after they invaded. It was built on
the site of a possible earlier settlement called Caer-coryn,
‘the town on the Churn,’ at the crossing of the river. It
became the junction of important pre-Roman and new
Roman routes.
As the town grew, Corinium became a busy centre for
government and trade. Inside the town, and beyond in the
countryside, many expensive houses and estates were built,
like out at Chedworth, by people who made money and
profited well under Roman rule and protection.
It is not clear whether the poorer locals benefited much from
the Roman lifestyle within the town walls. When the army
withdrew after 400AD, the use of the town changed and
buildings slowly decayed; much of the stone was reused in
later buildings; pre-Roman traditions and lifestyles
reappeared.
The grand mosaic floors and wall
foundations had to wait for the
archaeologists of the 19th and 20th
centuries to be recorded and protected.
Early England – Facts or fiction?
So where does Cirencester fit in?
Evidence for this period in the town’s history is limited. The graves
of two Saxon warriors were found at The Barton in 1909, and
some artefacts can be seen in the Corinium Museum.
In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, probably written in the ninth
century, Cirencester is mentioned connected with battles
between rival kings in AD577 and 628.
In AD879 the Vikings were said to have moved their camp from
Chippenham to Cirencester, and later when England was under
Danish rule for some years King Knut (Canute) held a great Council
here in1020.
It is likely that the settlement grew up here north-west of
the old Roman walls, in the Cecily Hill area. This was called
Instrop, or Inchthorpe, in the past. ‘Thorpe’ is a Saxon or
Scandinavian word for village.
Recently, part of a possible Anglo-Saxon building was
uncovered near the Leisure Centre; the remains of a Saxon
church were found during excavations of the Abbey
Grounds in the 1960s. Much remains to be discovered
about the local people who built and used them.
Facts or fiction?
The town’s connection with King Arthur
Throughout history, people have filled
gaps in evidence with good stories!
In Earl Bathurst’s Cirencester Park there
is a tree covered mound called
Grismond’s Mount or Tower, just visible
through a gate in the high wall near the
Leisure Centre. It has been rumoured to
be the site of the coronation of the
legendary King Arthur!
Other writers have suggested he was crowned in the Chapel of St
Cecilia, no longer standing, that gave the name to Cecily Hill.
But did he even exist? What do YOU think?