Some of the UK's top broadcasters, writers and thinkers will be exploring a whole range of fascinating topics when Cirencester History Festival returns this autumn 2025.
Following its 'phenomenal' first chapter in 2024, the festival will once again bring together local, national and global history experts for a series of engaging events this October 2025, with a host of immersive family-friendly activities taking place throughout, too.
Tickets are now on sale for the full programme of events, taking place at venues across town including the Church of St John Baptist, The Barn Theatre, Corinium Museum, Cirencester Library, New Brewery Arts, Bingham Hall and the Royal Agricultural University.
Cirencester's own Charlie Cooper returns
for 2025, joined by prehistory and Roman expert Miles Russell to show the
best of his metal detecting discoveries found within a few miles of town.
Legendary broadcaster John Suchet shares his
lifelong passion for the music of Beethoven; and British actor, comedian and author, Ben
Miller brings an insight into traditional fairy stories, with ‘Halloween laughs
for the whole family’.
Writer and Ricardian Philippa Langley reveals
the ‘remarkable’ untold story of the two boy princes in the Tower of London; and
renowned retail campaigner and broadcaster Mary Portas is joined by
star of BBC R4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, Annie Gray to discuss the past and future
of the British High Street.
Bringing a geopolitics focus to the festival is bestselling
author and guest commentator for the BBC and Sky News, Tim Marshall, exploring
how geography shapes the world’s politics and power struggles; along
with historian and current Guardian columnist, Simon
Jenkins, telling the ‘turbulent’ story of British architecture.
Former BBC journalist and historian Martin Sixsmith delivers
the annual Winstone Talk, 'Putin & The Return of History: How the Kremlin
Rekindled the Cold War'; while co-presenter of BBC’s Britain’s Lost
Masterpieces, Bendor Grosvenor, presents a ‘dazzling’ illustrated journey
through British art history.
Renowned archaeologist and former BBC Coast presenter Mark Horton reveals how he solved the mystery of North America’s first English settlement, the Lost Colony of Roanoke; and Julian Richards, Stonehenge expert and BBC’s Meet the Ancestors presenter, meets teens through the ages, from Stone Age hunter to Victorian chimney sweep, in 'Teenage Time Travel'.
Highlights from the activities programme include a ‘Paint Like Turner’ workshop, marking JMW Turner’s 250th birthday; ‘Regency High Tea’ with Cotswold Cookery School for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday; and a ‘Spies, Codes and Hieroglyphs’ WWII espionage workshop with Sufiya Ahmed at Corinium Museum.
The festival kicks off with a special event on Friday 24 October 2025, celebrating the music of Italian renaissance composer Palestrina with a concert at the parish church, featuring the highly renowned Sixteen Choir.
To discover the full lineup of events and to purchase tickets, head to the festival's website, cirencesterhistoryfestival.org.
