Cirencester (/ˈsaɪrənsɛstə/ ⓘ SY-rən-sest-ə, occasionally /ˈsɪstə/ ⓘ SIST-ə; see below for more variations)[2] is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England.

The Roman name for the town was Corinium, which is thought to have been associated with the ancient British tribe of the Dobunni, having the same root word as the River Churn.

[4] Cirencester lies on the lower dip slopes of the Cotswold Hills, an outcrop of oolitic limestone.

The name also persisted in Welsh, also first being attested in the ninth century, in writings of Asser, in the form Cair Ceri.

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 3 miles (5 km) 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.

A large forum and basilica were built over the site of the fort, and archaeological evidence shows signs of further civic growth.

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.

At the Norman Conquest the royal manor of Cirencester was granted to the Earl of Hereford, William Fitz-Osbern, but by 1075 it had reverted to the Crown.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

[11] Twenty townspeople were ordered to Westminster, where they declared under oath that successive abbots had bought up many burgage tenements, and made the borough into an appendage of the manor, depriving it of its separate court.

When ordered to produce the foundation charter of his abbey the abbot refused, apparently because that document would be fatal to his case, and instead played a winning card.

The townspeople continued in their fight: in return for their aid to the Crown against the earls of Kent and Salisbury, Henry IV in 1403 gave the townsmen a Merchant's Guild, although two inquisitions reiterated the abbot's rights.

After several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish the guild merchant, in 1592 the government of the town was vested in the bailiff of the Lord of the manor.

[11] As part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, Henry VIII ordered the total demolition of the Abbey buildings.

Today only the Norman Arch and parts of the precinct wall remain above ground, forming the perimeter of a public park in the middle of town.

Their wealth funded the rebuilding of the nave of the parish church in 1515–1530, to create the large building sometimes referred to as the "Cathedral of the Cotswolds".

At the end of the war, King Charles II spent the night of 11 September 1651 in Cirencester, during his escape after the Battle of Worcester on his way to France.

The passing of the Local Government Act 1894 at last brought into existence the town's first independent elected body, the Cirencester Urban District Council.

Under the patronage of the Bathurst family, the Cirencester area, notably Sapperton, became a major centre for the Arts and Crafts movement in the Cotswolds, when the furniture designer and architect-craftsman Ernest Gimson opened workshops in the early 20th century, and Norman Jewson, his foremost student, practised in the town.

The modern name Cirencester is derived from the cognate root Ciren and the standard -cester ending indicating a Roman fortress or encampment.

This pronunciation is humorously highlighted in a 1928 limerick from Punch: There was a young lady of Cirencester Whose fiancé went down to virencester By the Great Western line, Which he swore was divine, And he couldn't have been much explirencester.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

[20] 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.

[24] 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.

The latter operates the hourly route 58 circular bus service within Cirencester, connecting the town centre and Stratton.