Another brief trip to Alvechurch & then Cirencester (Roman Corinium Dobunnorum)

St John The Baptist Church, Cirencester

Another dash up the motorway back to Alvechurch, quick hello and in to Specsavers in Redditch to get my glasses. They are not perfect, the prescription is correct, it’s the positions that’s weird, but she has made them just about wearable, so the second pair are being changed, and I’m having some reading glasses.

We’d got back to mum in time to avoid the forecast wind and snow which I think was just as well reading other people’s Facebook postings. We spent Friday and Saturday taking mum Christmas shopping and meeting up with Helen and Richard, who had come to stay with John and go to the village play, performed by the drama group that was such a big part of Sarah’s life.

Worst of the weather over we headed back south, to Cirencester. It was obviously still cold as when we came to fill Ted with water, the frost ‘dump’ valve on the heater wouldn’t stay closed. This is a valve that operates at 3degrees or so to dump the water out of the heater so preventing frost damage. Turning the heater on, and putting a hot water bottle in the locker finally enabled us to put water into the heater, so off we set.

Big Ted on site in Cirencester

A pleasant site about a 20 minute walk into Cirencester, through the Bathurst estate, a lovely bit of parkland has provided us with a good base for a few days (campsite location: 51°42'51.9"N 1°59'04.3"W).

We’ve decided we like Cirencester too, it’s compact, has lots of interesting buildings, nice places to eat, and a good museum. Guided town walks are off in the winter but you can buy a guide to do it yourself, for £1.20, which we did. Probably better at our own pace as it was extremely cold, but crisp and clear is good. 

The lovely old barrack building in Cirencester. A Grade II listed building built in 1857 originally as an armoury, now offices

Cecily Road entrance to Cirencester Park

Tuesday was quite a lot warmer, and not nearly as damp as predicted, so we walked a bit further afield and went to the museum which heavily featured the Romans who had been very big in Cirencester and named it Corinium Dobonnorum. They had some very good mosaics, which I would say knocked St. Albans into a cocked hat. The small section of wall and the amphitheater however were not nearly as impressive as St. Albans.

Ancient monument of St John the Baptist Hospital & Chantry

Yesterday was a chilling day, but we did walk back into town, but just for lunch and a couple of pints. How very civilised!

And today? Back at mums, tomorrow he has his flu jab and I have my Covid booster and then the first of three curries, in four days... too much of a good thing? All whilst catching up with people and doing our final bits and pieces before our ferry to Spain next week. Will it happen?

Can you make out the rows of stones marking out the old abbey of Cirencester? You'll be able to see it better by looking at the Google Maps: click here. It was founded in 1117 and was a large medeval abbey razed to the ground on the orders of Henry VIII during the reformation

Part of the inside of St John The Baptist parish church (outside photo at the start of this blog), built next to the old abbey. The ceiling here is said to have been taken from the ruins of the abbey

This is the Norman Gate and is the only surviving part of the abbey. It originally formed part of the wall round the abbey grounds, everything else was completely destroyed on the orders of Henry VIII

These bumps here were originally the Roman amphitheatre in Cirencester. It was built just outside the Roman city of Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester) and is thought to have been the largest in England, estimated to have had a capacity of 8000 people. The Roman city was the third largest in England and, at one point the capital of the West and South-West part of England and on the junction of three major Roman roads: Akerman Street linking the town to Verulamium (St Albans) in the east, Ermin Street linking the town to Glevum (Gloucester) to the north and Calleva (Silchester) in the south and Fosse Way linking the town to Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the south west and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) in the north-east via a number of other important Roman towns. It was very important to Roman Britain and remained that way until around 400 AD when troops were withdrawn following attacks in Gaul (France) by the Huns (Germany), cutting off Britain from the rest of the empire. Following the withdrawal of Rome and raids by the Vikings the town was abandoned and by around 450 AD had fallen into ruins. The amphitheatre was identified as such in around 1750 after being buried for 1300 years