CIRENCESTER (sis'es-tur or sis'et-ur), market town, Gloucestershire, England, on the river Churn, 8o m. west-north west of London. Pop. of urban district (1931) 7, zoo. It is served by the G.W.R.
It is the site of the Romano-British Corinium, at first perhaps a military post, but afterwards, a civilian city. There are ruins of an amphitheatre and indications of the walls. At Chedworth, 7 m. north-east, is a Roman villa. Cirencester (Cirneceaster, Cyren ceaster, Cyringceaster) is described in Domesday as ancient de mesne of the crown. The manor was granted by William I. to William Fitzosbern ; on reverting to the crown it was given in 1189, with the township, to the Augustinian abbey founded here in I117 by Henry I., of which there remain a Norman gateway and a few capitals. The parish church is mainly perpendicular, with a high embattled tower. Among its many chapels that of St. Catherine has a beautiful roof of fan-tracery in stone, dated 1508. The townsmen struggled in vain throughout the middle ages to show that Cirencester was a borough. For their success against the earls of Kent and Salisbury Henry IV. in 1403 gave the townsmen a gild merchant. In 1418 the charter was annulled, and in 1477 parliament declared that Cirencester was not corpo rate. There are several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish the gild merchant. Besides the "new market" of Domesday Book the abbots obtained charters in 1215 and 1 2 53 for fairs during the octaves of All Saints and St. Thomas the Martyr. The wool trade gave these great importance ; in 1341 there were ten wool mer chants in Cirencester, and Leland speaks of the abbots' cloth-mill, while Camden calls it the greatest market for wool in England.
Oakley Park was laid out during the i8th century by Lord Bathurst. A mile west of the town is the Royal Agricultural Col lege originally incorporated by charter in 1845, and reorganized on new lines since 1918. There are two museums containing mosaics, inscriptions, carved and sculptured stones. The industries of Cirencester comprise various branches of agriculture. It has connection by a branch canal with the Thames and Severn canal. Cirencester became a parliamentary borough in 1572, then return ing two members, but was deprived of separate representation in 1885. It is now included in the Cirencester and Tewkesbury Division of Gloucester.