Cirencester Bathurst Friendship
About The Friendship
The Friendship is dedicated to fostering connections and promoting opportunities between Cirencester and Bathurst based on commerce, education, sports, tourism and friendship!
History of The Friendship
Bathurst was named in 1815 after the 3rd Earl of Bathurst whose ancestral home is at Cirencester, the Capital of the Cotswolds in the UK.
Cirencester is the ancestral home of Lord Bathurst, and the site of the famous Cirencester Park and the Bathurst Estate. Today the 9th Earl Bathurst still resides at the family seat of Cirencester Park. The family has lived in Cirencester since 1705.
In 2016 Bathurst NSW and Cirencester began to establish a closer relationship based upon their historical ties and economic similarities between the regions. In 2019 a formal friendship arrangement was formalised between the two cities.
Having established this formal friendship arrangement both cities shared a desire to move beyond a symbolic relationship and to create a genuine economic partnership to benefit the local businesses and economies of both areas. The first stage in this process was the establishment of the ‘Cotswolds Store’ at the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre in October 2019. The Store stocks a selection of authentic products of Cirencester and the Cotswolds, all carefully selected and personally approved by Lord Bathurst.
The Store and Friendship Agreement will lead to even closer connections, with a number of visits also planned for the year ahead.
