Cirencester is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, 80 miles west of London.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,550 |
16 Facts About Cirencester
2.
Cirencester is twinned with the town of Itzehoe, in the Steinburg region of Germany.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,551 |
3.
Cirencester is known to have been an important early Roman area, along with St Albans and Colchester, and the town includes evidence of significant area roadworks.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,552 |
4.
Minster church of Cirencester, founded in the 9th or 10th century, was probably a royal foundation.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,553 |
5.
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.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,554 |
6.
The manor was granted to Cirencester Abbey, founded by Henry I in 1117, and following half a century of building work during which the minster church was demolished, the great abbey church was finally dedicated in 1176.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,555 |
7.
Struggle of the townsmen to gain the rights and privileges of a borough for Cirencester probably began with the grant of 1189, when they were amerced for a false presentment, meaning that they had presented false information.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,556 |
8.
Cirencester became a parliamentary borough in 1572, returning two members, although this was deprived of representation in 1885.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,557 |
9.
Cirencester thus was served by two railway lines until the 1960s.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,558 |
10.
The modern name Cirencester is derived from the cognate root Ciren and the standard -cester ending indicating a Roman fortress or encampment.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,559 |
11.
Cirencester inherited the estate from his father, Sir Benjamin Bathurst, a Tory Member of Parliament and statesman who made his wealth from his involvement in the slave trade through the Royal Africa Company and the East India Company.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,560 |
12.
Abbey House was a country house built on the site of the former Cirencester Abbey following its dissolution and demolition at the Reformation in the 1530s.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,561 |
13.
Cirencester was one of the most substantial cities of Roman-era Britain.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,562 |
14.
Liberal Democrats are now the dominant political party in Cirencester, winning all eight Cirencester seats available on Cotswold District Council in May 2019; the party has an overall majority there.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,563 |
15.
Cirencester is the hub of a road network with routes to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Leamington Spa, Oxford, Wantage, Swindon, Chippenham, Bristol, Bath and Stroud ; only Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and Swindon have bus connections.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,564 |
16.
In November 2020, Kemble to Cirencester was one of 15 grant awards in the second round of the Department for Transport Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund.
| FactSnippet No. 1,141,565 |