214 



PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 



1914 



who confirmed the charter of his grandfather. In the first year of Henry IV., 

 the townsmen of Cirencester, who had just distinguished themselves in their 

 fideUty to this Monarcli, in the assistance they had rendered in suppressing 

 the insurrection of the Earls of Kent and SaUsbury, appealed to the King for 

 a strict inquisition to be issued against the Abbot for the usurpation of certain 

 rights in the Town and Seven Hundreds. In the reign succeeding that of 

 Henry V. the Monks grew more and more disliked by the laity, and this eventu- 

 ally culminated in the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. The Abbey 

 of Cirencester was surrendered to the King's Commissioners 29th December, 

 1539, and was at that time one of the richest religious houses in the kingdom. 

 By letters patent dated nth May, 32 Henry VIII., the King, granted to 

 Robert Bassinge, Esq., the site of the late dissolved Monastery of Cirencester 

 conditional upon all edifices within the site being pulled down and carted 

 away. The Hospital or Spital Gate in Grove Lane (fig. 2) is the only portion 

 of the Conventual buildings that remains. 



Fig. 2. — ^The Hospital Gate of the Abbey of St. Mary, Cirencester. 



To this gateway the Members travelled, and Mr Sewell mentioned 

 an interesting picture sold by Sotheran's, of London, in the form of an 

 eighteenth century picture of the gateway. This depicts a building which 

 in site agreed with where the Abbey barn was believed to have stood. 

 All the farm buildings had been swept away, and with the exception of the 

 gateway not a scrap of the original Abbey remained. 



Mr Baddeley said that originally there were two gateways. The one 

 that had been removed stood some 50 or 60 yards further in the grounds. 

 It would be interesting to know whether the old picture to which reference 

 had been made contained any evidence of the existence of a second gateway. 

 The moulding of the gateway arches practically gave them the date of erection. 



