CAHS Snapshots of Local History: More Signs of Old Cirencester Town Life

The Hope Inn in Querns Lane, gathering before a coach trip.

With contributions from Cirencester Archaeological & Historical Society, members & friends

More signs of old Cirencester town life

The oddities of commercial and business signage in Cirencester have enjoyed a raised profile during the past year, via various promotional opportunities. The Hidden Cirencester photographic album, at the heart of Cirencester Round Table’s identification quiz challenge back in the spring, included a number of lesser-known signs (painted or inscribed) which survive tucked away in odd corners and entrances. This set the ball rolling for much enjoyable street-searching in pursuit of the £500 prize! The album was featured in the February 2023 issue of Ciren Scene, available on-line.

In the November issue (also on-line) we looked at the associated challenge of seeking out the town’s ‘ghost signs’, redundant, often forgotten but nevertheless still surviving in their original position long after their role as commercial advertising has disappeared. This too forms quite a group, with more being added to the inventory as interest grows, and hopefully to enhance the Cirencester Neighbourhood Plan’s original listing.

Well worth adding to those mentioned last time is the bulky structure of c.1898 at the corner of Lewis Lane and Watermoor Road, strongly labelled Cirencester Urban District Council Water Works. It has its own fascinating history. So too but on a totally different scale and still holding its status in the heart of the Market Place is the clock from the days of Alfred Stradling, watch-maker and jeweller, and his descendants trading here until some thirty years ago. It remains a talking point and a curiosity. There are others, including various mosaic panels which will make another story.

These days, the changeover in business premises seems to be so much more frequent and the removal of old signage so much more comprehensive. Although local memory will of course remain strong, three current examples make this point very well. A visitor to the town would be hard-pressed to identify R.A. O’Donnell Ltd, Jewellers at 8 Castle Street since 1998, now that all signage has been removed. It closed only at the end of July.

Despite the obvious clues in their architectural styles and scale, similarly the former HSBC (Midland) bank at the top of Cricklade Street, which closed on 08 August (Ciren Scene August issue), or the still-dominant presence of the former Tesco store, closed last April. The old signage has vanished, and behind bland facades each awaits a new use.

Often it is inns and public houses which traditionally leave their mark long after the original purpose has faded away. Cirencester has a variety of examples, from the happily extant, the languishing, the converted to other uses, to the completely vanished. All pubs have plenty of tales to tell and can be goldmines of local history memory. Here are just two examples which although fairly modest in scale and location do make the point very well. Each was in its own way something of a community hub.

The former Horse & Drill inn in Watermoor

At the far end of the town on the Swindon Road in Watermoor was the Horse & Drill inn, in the junction with the Siddington road. The town’s ring road cutting through here in the 1970s has completely transformed this scene, but this building has survived and is about to be refurbished for a new use. A hostelry since at least 1870 as the Drill Inn, it belonged to local brewery Cripps & Co, later called the Cirencester Brewery. By 1906 it was advertising in the local paper a 25-yard-long Rifle Range, plus food and stabling.

Rescued from the risk of demolition for the new road works, it came into Cotswold District Council ownership and become a staff social club for its later years, this function fading away only a few years ago. Externally it looks like a very typical Cotswold stone house, and only minimal signage was ever installed. The main surviving feature is the attractive bracket for its (long vanished) hanging sign. Let’s hope that can be preserved as the final link to its days as a community pub.

The Hope Inn at the corner of Querns Lane and Sheep Street was another serving its local community. It too failed to survive the many changes in this area of town as its clientele faded away. Those who remained drank it dry by way of farewell in March 1975. One of its great traditions was an annual gathering for a coach trip, as seen here in this splendid photograph (undated, but can anybody help?).

There is no shortage of signage here, none of which survives other than the end-gable painted sign off to the right, as noted in our November article. Alas, the simple but effective hanging sign and bracket are no more, nor the required landlord’s signage over the door. In the niche above, the trademark Simonds Brewery hop leaf logo has gone too, but hopefully it might survive in an enthusiast’s collection somewhere?

And finally, on the corner, one of the town’s series of blue street name plates, as featured in Ciren Scene April 2022 issue. That too has gone, and the same sentiments apply: might that too survive? All these signs are each in their own way visible recollections of Cirencester town history, to be preserved and still enjoyed wherever possible.

David Viner

Seek out Philip Griffiths: Cirencester Pubs Through Time (Amberley 2013).