 Dyer
Street
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| Cirencester, a mere 15 minutes' drive
from Vale View, is one of the loveliest old market towns of the
Cotswolds. It made its fortune through the woollen trade, and many
rich wool merchants chose to spend their money to grace posterity
with pretty lime-stone houses. The Romans particularly liked the
aspect of Cirencester, and made it a town second only to London
in size. Known as Corinium Dobunnorum, it now houses a museum with
a fine collection of Roman mosaics and antiquities, relics of its
glorious past. The beautiful Church of St John the Baptist dates
back to Norman times - the church also houses a cup made for Anne
Boleyn in 1535. But the prize for the oldest secular building in
the town goes to St Thomas's Hospital which dates back to the 15th
Century. Pre-dating this, however, is the ivy-clad north gateway,
all that remains of the St Mary's Abbey, built in the 12th Century,
and consecrated in the presence of Henry II. But if you think that
Cirencester is all about the past, think again. It houses a fabulous
series of workshops which gather together all that is best about
English craftsmen and women in the 21st Century. A former brewery,
it was converted by the Cotswold District Council in the 1970s,
and now houses a fascinating array of traditional arts, often with
a modern-day twist. Here, in the town, you can shop and eat to your
heart's content knowing, as with many Cotswold centres, that you
are somewhere unique: no great chain stores and faceless outlets
scar this place of beauty. But don't leave without a walk up Cecily
Hill - here you can see some of the fine mansions and lodges that
were built from the 17th Century onwards, all in beautiful local
limestone. |
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