Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Cirencester is a market town in Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural University, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world, founded in 1840.

The Roman name for the town was Corinium, which is thought to have been associated with the ancient British tribe of the Dobunni, having the same root word as the River Churn. The earliest known reference to the town was by Ptolemy in AD 150. The town's Corinium Museum has an extensive Roman collection.

Geography Cirencester lies on the lower dip slopes of the Cotswold Hills, an outcrop of oolitic limestone. Natural drainage is into the River Churn, which flows roughly north to south through the eastern side of the town and joins the River Thames near Cricklade, a little to the south. The Thames itself rises just a few miles west of Cirencester.

The town is split into five main areas: the town centre, the village of Stratton, the suburb of Chesterton (originally a village outside the town), Watermoor and The Beeches. The village of Siddington to the south of the town is now almost contiguous with Watermoor. Other suburbs include Bowling Green and New Mills. The area and population of these five electoral wards are identical to that quoted above. The town serves as a centre for surrounding villages, providing employment, amenities, shops, commerce and education; it is a commuter town for larger centres such as Cheltenham, Gloucester, Swindon and Stroud.

Roads Cirencester is the hub of a road network with routes to Gloucester (A417), Cheltenham (A417/A435), Leamington Spa (A429), Oxford (A40 via the B4425 road), Wantage (A417), Swindon (A419), Chippenham (A429), Bristol, Bath (A433) and Stroud (A419); only Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and Swindon have bus connections. Cirencester is connected to the M5 motorway at junction 11A and to the M4 motorway at junctions 15, 17 and 18.

Cirencester has a town bus service, route 58.

Railway Since the Cirencester Watermoor railway station was closed to passengers in 1961 and the Kemble to Cirencester branch line to Cirencester Town station was closed to passengers in 1964, the town has been without its own station. The nearest station is now at Kemble, 3.7 miles (6 km) away. It is served by regular Great Western Railway trains between Swindon and Gloucester, with some direct trains to London Paddington station, except on Sundays. 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.

Air The nearest airports are Bristol, London Heathrow and Birmingham. A general aviation airport, Cotswold Airport, is nearby at Kemble.