Cirencester Archaeological and Historical Society

Welcome to our website.

Do enjoy browsing from the menu above. Our evening talks and yearly membership begin every September. Future talks for the 2025-26 season and listed here.

Our next talk will be

Wednesday 22nd April 2026

The History of Gloucestershire Constabulary

Sue Webb

Lectures are free to members and students in full-time education.

Non-members – £5

Visitors are always welcome.

Gloucestershire Constabulary is the oldest county force and has a rich and varied history. Sue Webb, Gloucestershire Constabulary Archives Officer, will talk about the history of the force, making particular reference to Cirencester where possible. Sue will also be bringing along Cirencester constabulary diaries from the 1800s that have yet to be transcribed.

Community News

An exciting talk will be presented by our friends, The Friends of the Parish Church about Anne Boleyn on the 15th May at St John the Baptist Parish Church in Cirencester Market Place.

Tickets are available from the Church shop and the Corinium Museum.

See the adjacent Poster

Society News

Aileen Anderson 1941-2026

We are very sad to inform you of the recent death of our Vice-chair, Aileen Anderson.

Aileen was for many years Chair of this Society and continued as an active committee member until her death. During and after her career as a teacher, she was very involved in the history and archaeology of Cirencester, taking part as a volunteer in the Beeches dig in the early 1970s (she was one of the first to discover the Hare Mosaic), volunteering in the Corinium Museum and serving on numerous committees in the town. She also worked hard as a Churchwarden of the Parish Church.

Our Parish Church of St John Baptist was full for her funeral with wonderful tributes paid from her family and people she had worked with. She was brought to the Church in procession from the Corinium Museum in Park Street where she had worked and volunteered for nearly fifty years.

There is going to be an ‘Aileen-shaped’ hole in many aspects of Cirencester life. You may have your own memories of her. We are sad to lose a colleague and friend who was active on behalf of her many interests until her death.

Its been an exciting October for the society volunteering for the Cirencester History Festival and producing our own CAHS event with Julian Richards. A highlight for everyone was the Old Station Experience. Take a look at this film made by our committee member, Martin Ling

We are keen to be a useful portal into the best of archaeology and local history. If you are interested in a bit of research on a topic close to your heart, or fancy giving some time to help out with, for example, transcribing documents, Alison Wagstaff would like to help point you to the right experts. Contact her through the general email cahs@cirenhistory.org

WEAVERS’ HALL

Thomas Street, Cirencester GL7 2AX

CAHS is very pleased to host this new video from Cirencester Weavers Company showing the remarkable features of this unique building – Grade II* listed, Cirencester’s earliest domestic building still in active use, with a rare 17^th and 18^th century wall painting conserved in recent years. There are also opportunities to visit in person so keep an eye on this website for notification of occasional public viewings in the summer months

Social media: We are on Facebook, twitter and Instagram. See links at the bottom of every page.

There is much to explore on this site. See Projects, Places to Visit and Publications. If we have your email address, we can send you items of interest from time to time, including occasional meetings of sister societies.

William Croome – his work for the care of churches. This full article was originally the Croome Lecture presented in 1993 and subsequently published in our Cirencester Miscellany No 3 in 1996. We’re pleased to be able to add it to our website in full, with some additional photographs. Here is the link

The demolition and rebuilding of flats off The Avenue, Cirencester, brought an article in our Newsletter 49 of 2009 on public art to the fore. The planning assessment shows much archaeology under the site, believed to be the original Roman town centre. The site has now been rebuilt.

Gloucestershire Archives are always keen to hear about any old documents, maps etc that are coming up for sale by auction in order to bring them to public access. Sometimes they are able to raise money to buy them for the archives before auctions push the price up. Claire Collins is Head of Collections and can be contacted by anyone with any information.

We are still receiving updates and enquiries about our information on those who died and even survived World War I. If you have more information than we have published about any of the people on the Cirencester monuments, do drop us a note.

Know Your Place West now has mapping for Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset. Maps from about 1840 to date can be compared and after moderation you can add historical information. Do watch the video to see how to use it! Have fun! Tithe maps have been added where they exist.

No part of this website may be reproduced or distributed without prior written permission

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