The return of pieces of a mosaic to Cirencester

Several websites have recently reported upon the return to Cirencester - Corinium to the Romans - of a piece of mosaic removed from a Roman site at Withington there in 1812 and given to the British Museum. It has now been reunited with the majority of the mosaic on a long term loan from the BM. This seems to be an excellent outcome. 

 

The story is set out in a BBC News report at 'incredible' Roman mosaic returns home after 200 years

The story is also set out in an article from the Oxford Mail here

The Corinium Museum has a relevant video about another mosaic which can be watched at Orpheus Mosaic Cirencester and a history of its 1825 discovery at Stories across the centuries found buried in a mosaic - Corinium Museum

  

The Withington project came about as a consequence of the celebration of the bicentenary of the discovery of the Orphaeus mosaic nearby at Barton in 1825 

In 1971 a mosaic which included a hare was uncovered in Beeches Road in the town. The hare motif was copied for a new development in the town, and this has now been renovated, as described in a BBC News article at Roman hare mosaic restored in Cirencester's Brewery Court

Cirencester has some significant and striking Roman remains in the town centre. The Roman town was the seat of the financial administration of Britannia and a focus for the road system. Today significant Roman remains are tucked away alongside its handsome Cotswold townscape and, of course, one of the great late medieval urban parish churches of the country.

There are also important villa sites in the nearby Cotswolds - a pleasant place to live in Roman times or now.