The remains of the ancient Roman town of Corinium lie underneath our feet as we walk around Cirencester. Join us to discuss the Roman archaeology of the town and key discoveries that point to this being one of the most vibrant and wealthy towns in Roman Britain. Please wear comfortable shoes and bring a raincoat! Meet at the museum.

Monks, Merchants & Mud! The fleeces of the Cotswold sheep were some of most sought after in all Medieval Europe. The proceeds made fortunes, built a parish church, underwrote a hospital, and supported markets, inns and shops. From sacred splendours to squalid streets, join us on this walking tour to experience Medieval Cirencester.

Walk lasts just over an hour. Please wear comfortable shoes and bring a raincoat! Meet at the museum.

Join us for a Corinium Afternoon. One of our knowledgeable team will give a talk taking the Museum’s collection as its starting point. From Prehistory to Romans, Anglo Saxons to Medieval Cirencester, or perhaps inspired by something surprising found in our reserve collections, we hope to share the fascinating histories of the Cotswolds to brighten up even the gloomiest Thursday afternoon.

Join us to discover the museum stores: the Cotswolds from prehistory to the 1950’s, through stone, costume, pottery, rural life and social history. We have scythes and hoovers, pottery from all ages and Roman mosaics, carved column plinths and stone coffins, medieval tiles and corbels, smocks and an ambassador’s sword. After a tour of the store we’ll focus on a few fascinating things that we’ve pulled out of their boxes or off their shelves. The store is full of surprises.

Location: The Resource Centre, The Old Prison Site, Northleach, GL54 3JH.

The Resource Centre is the green building to the right of the main Old Prison car park.

“The finest and most expensive wool was the English which came from the Cotswolds and, in particular, from Northleach and the great Abbey lands of Cirencester” Francesco Datini, 15th Century Florentine merchant.

Five hundred years ago it was noted that ‘half the wealth of England rides on the back of sheep.’ Join Ian Thomas for a walk around Cirencester, where the hustle and bustle of the medieval town will be brought to life through the lives and skills of the wool combers, the card makers, the dyers, the weavers and the wool staplers. Ian will share the role the Abbey played in trading wool and he will highlight the growth of the great ‘wool’ church of St. John the Baptist. Ian will take you to the sites that bear testimony to Cirencester’s glorious wool history.

The walk lasts just over an hour. Please wear comfortable shoes and bring a rain coat! Meet at the museum.

Ian Thomas will lead a walk around the town bringing to life the ‘storming of Cirencester’ in 1643. See where events unfolded and consider the significance of Cirencester in the English Civil War. The walk will explore the town centre, the Abbey Grounds and Cirencester Park. Please wear comfortable shoes and bring a raincoat!

Cirencester has always had the spirit to tackle perceived injustice and stand up to the Abbot/Lord of the Manor and the reigning King, even when the odds were stacked against them. This town tour takes you on a tale of Cirencester’s troubles with the Abbey and the Monarchy. Please wear comfortable shoes and bring a raincoat! Meet at the museum.

Corinium Museum, in collaboration with Cotswold Heritage Walks, is excited to offer a series of historic walking tours. The event will be led by archaeologist, Dr Alison Grierson-Brookes, former Head of Collections at Corinium Museum, who has begun a new venture combining her two great passions archaeology and walking!

Head out with Alison to explore what lies beneath your feet revealing the ancient town of Roman Corinium, parts of the wall and impressive amphitheatre. After a short break for refreshments, Alison will lead a tour of Corinium Museum to discover the treasures revealed on the walk. With each step you will connect with the historic landscape and gain a unique insight as you walk and talk along the way. With 20 years’ experience researching and curating the collection you will be in expert hands as Alison shares her passion and unique knowledge of Roman Corinium.

This half-day event will comprise of a two-hour leisurely walking tour of the town and amphitheatre, entry to the Museum with refreshments, followed by a guided tour of the award-winning Roman galleries.

Wear good footwear as mostly flat but some uneven terrain. Walk experience lasts approx. 2 hours, museum visit lasts approx. 1 hour.

Animal depictions in late Iron Age (or early ‘Celtic’) art have always been associated with strong symbolism. Wild boars have long been associated with fierce warriors, crows and ravens have been linked with death and the battlefield, and horses have always been thought to be the symbol of kings. With all the new finds that have been reported over the last twenty years, does the new evidence we have support these ideas? Or is something else going on? Were the uses of animals nothing more than fashion statements, akin to how flamingos and seashells decorate high summer accessories today?

This talk is based on the results of a recently completed and soon to be published doctoral study, which will introduce some of the weird, wonderful, and wacky artefacts from the 441 that were analysed. It will identify the challenges in recognising the genuinely figurative in a famously abstract art style and explore how this work has changed our understanding of the use of art by Iron Age communities in this period. In recognition of recent discoveries, it will also briefly touch upon the importance of human depictions from the area, and how they have challenged our understanding of art development and aesthetics.

A year after graduating with a BA in Archaeology and Heritage Studies from the University of Worcester, I went on to complete my MA in Archaeology at the University of Bradford where I was first introduced to La Tène art studies. After securing funding from the Heritage Consortium, I graduated with my PhD from the University of Hull in May 2022. I continue to research and publish on new artefact discoveries, most recently on the Marlborough Bucket, the second most decorated vessel in Iron Age Europe.

Former Red Arrows pilot Andy Wyatt is a highly experienced aviator with over 23,000 flying hours on a variety of military, general and commercial aircraft.  He has flown the iconic English Electric Lightning, where his duties included intercepting Russian aircraft during the height of the Cold War and following a tour of duty as a Flying Instructor on the Hawk, he completed a highly successful 3 years with The RAF Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows where he was awarded a Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air.  He commanded No 92 Squadron before leaving the RAF to join British Airways, where he became a Captain on the legendary Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. During the recent pandemic, he started a cargo airline, Longtail Aviation, where he became the Chief Pilot.  Andy is a TV presenter, motivational speaker and is a regular lecturer onboard cruise ships.

Andy’s talk covers a year in the life of the world-famous RAF aerobatic team and includes an inside look at how pilots are selected and trained for this demanding role. He also describes what happens behind the scenes with the engineering and administration of the Team and covers a typical day in their air show season. His presentation is illustrated with wonderful air-to-air pictures of the Red Arrows and exclusive in-cockpit video footage.

Evening Lecture with Martin Graebe

Back in the 19th Century there was no radio and there were no gramophones, so if you wanted to hear a song, you had to be there to hear the singer in person. The songs were passed on by learning them from the performer – unless you could read (or knew someone who could), in which case you could learn the songs printed on the broadsides, chapbooks and songsters, sold cheaply on the streets and at country fairs. The songs included the popular themes of the day – the loves, lives and struggles of lords and ladies, soldiers and sailors, ploughmen and dairy maids, as well as tales of murders and disasters. All Victorian life was there! In this illustrated talk Martin Graebe looks at the broadside ballad and its printed cousins, talks about their history with particular reference to the Cirencester broadside printer, William Clift, and with the help of Shan Graebe, sings a few examples.

Cotswold Archaeology Mick Aston Annual Lecture with Prof. Josh Pollard

Avebury is one of the great monuments of prehistoric Europe. It is often overshadowed by its more famous cousin, Stonehenge, and has not received the same level of archaeological attention, with the last major excavations at Avebury taking place during the 1930s. However, work within the wider landscape has been ongoing and the results of some of that fieldwork are presented here, with particularly the 'Living with Monuments Project' that has sought to understand the relationship between settlement and monument creation during the region's Neolithic. Seeing Avebury through the lens of settlement offers new insights, as does analogy with events at other major Neolithic monument complexes. Emphasis is placed on how Avebury came into being, on its connections (local and long-distance), and on the curious character of Neolithic monumental metamorphosis.

Joshua Pollard is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. He has a particular research interest in the Neolithic of the British isles, and over the last two decades has been actively involved in fieldwork in the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site.  Following completion of his PhD at Cardiff, he worked for the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, as a Sir James Knott Research Follow at Newcastle, and as a Temporary Lecturer at Queen's, Belfast. In 1998 he took up a permanent post as a Lecturer at the University of Wales, Newport, before moving to Bristol and thence to Southampton in 2011.

Cotswold Archaeology holds its ‘Mick Aston Annual Lecture’ in memory of former Trustee, Mick Aston, and his lifelong contribution to archaeology. Each year the lecture celebrates recent discoveries in the field of archaeology for attendees both in the Cotswolds and digitally from all over the world: this lecture is available both in person at the Corinium Museum and online as one of Cotswold Archaeology’s webinar series.

Corinium Museum offer regular art workshops for adults. All materials are provided but feel free to bring your own if you wish.

All abilities are always welcome.

Corinium Museum offer regular art workshops for adults. All materials are provided but feel free to bring your own if you wish.

All abilities are always welcome.