CAHS Snapshots of Local History Cirencester Burial Grounds

When the Romans arrived in AD 45 they built a fort which eventually became a city called Corinium.

Romano-British burial practice required cemeteries to be sited outside the town boundaries and alongside approach roads to the east and the south (Watermoor) and to the west between Tetbury Road and the amphitheatre (including where St. James’s Place offices are located). An excellent display of artefacts and headstones can be seen in the Corinium Museum.

The Romans left Britain in the 5th Century and subsequently an Anglo-Saxon church was built with a graveyard in what became the centre of the town. In 1117 King Henry I granted permission for the Augustinians to build the Abbey of St. Mary leaving the townspeople to build their own parish church dedicated to St. John Baptist around 1157.

Of course, the population were all Roman Catholics until King Henry VIII fell out with the Pope and created the Church of England in 1539. Not everyone was happy with the new order and Roman Catholics met secretly, and over time Unitarians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Strict Baptists and Quakers all established meeting places and chapels in Cirencester, some of which allowed burials within their buildings and in the grounds.

Burials naturally continued within the Parish Church and in the adjoining churchyard until it was declared closed in 1872. The Town Commissioners had purchased a field in Chesterton Lane, and this continues to be used today as the Town Cemetery.

When Holy Trinity Church was built in Watermoor Road in 1847-51, it was unsuitable for a graveyard due to the high-water table although in more recent times cremated remains have been interred there. A graveyard for Non-conformist use was also created in Watermoor Road (now closed) and the Quakers buried their members in the rear of their Meeting House in Thomas Street, built in 1673. Similarly, the Baptists used their chapel (built 1856-7) in Coxwell Street for a few burials, and a larger number of burials took place at the Unitarian Chapel in Gosditch Street, founded in 1672.

Many people could not afford to erect tombstones in memory of the departed, but wealthy wool merchants and other townsfolk spent large sums on memorials both inside the Parish Church and in the churchyard. Chest tombs were fashionable in the 17-19th centuries and although many have disintegrated over time some 25 chest tombs in the Parish Churchyard have been listed as Grade 2 by Historic England and another four in the former Unitarian graveyard nearby in Gosditch Street.

In the 1990s a group of volunteers led by Don Harris and with the support of CAHS painstakingly recorded all the graves and tombs in the Parish churchyard and these records are available on application in the Church and at the Bingham Library.

In a new initiative during the past year or so, a Cirencester Civic Society member has been busy surveying and cataloging all the town’s graveyards, except the Chesterton Lane Cemetery. For the first time we now have an accurate set of plans and a catalogue of all the names of the deceased in the Parish Churchyard, the Unitarian Chapel, the Baptist Chapel, the Friends Meeting House, and the Non-conformist Graveyard. The cremated remains in the Parish Church and Holy Trinity churchyards are also accurately mapped. There are nearly 3,000 records in this database.

Plans are afoot to create a self-guided trail around the Parish Churchyard and to offer guided walks during Heritage Open Days and in the Cirencester History Festival later this year. Family Historians should find the information invaluable in their researches, and so discussions are underway to see if the completed project archive might be housed at the Gloucestershire Family History Centre at Gloucestershire Archives.

The final resting place of many of Cirencester’s notable citizens is now recorded, including the Croome family and the Rev. John Sayer Principal of RAC in the Parish churchyard, and Elizabeth Brown and the Bowlys at the Quaker burial ground. Sadly, many of the historic listed chest tombs continue to deteriorate due to weathering and so the Friends of St. John Baptist Churchyard who maintain the graveyard there are hoping to raise c£35k to enable some of the stonework to be restored.

John Tiffney

Support Cirencester’s principal heritage societies and their event programmes: Archaeological & Historical Society (www.cirenhistory.org.uk) and Civic Society (www.ccsoc.org.uk), which runs a programme of Town Walks in the season plus pre-booked for small groups. See the Society’s website or phone William Cooper on 01285 88 55 90.

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