As we are reminded by Messrs Darvill and Holbrook in their introductory essay to Cirencester Excavations 6, Cirencester has been the arena for one of the most intensive and long-running programmes of archaeological investigation in Britain, focused in particular on Roman Corinium. In 1958 the Cirencester Excavations Committee was founded to give a new purpose and structure to archaeological work in the town. Fifty years later Cirencester has become the centre of operations for Cotswold Archaeology (CA), one of the behemoths of the British archaeological world. To commemorate this Golden Jubilee D. and H. have looked back to 1958 and reviewed the changing organisational arrangements for the investigation of the town, noting the principal discoveries and also introducing us to the many and varied individuals who have contributed to the story. The second and greater part of the volume is composed of a series of excavation reports bringing us up to date with a variety of investigations which touch on many of the principal aspects of Corinium, including the street system, the public buildings, the defences and the cemeteries.

At first I felt that the two parts of this volume resembled the proverbial pantomime horse with the front not properly connected to the back. However, both are well worth having. D. and H. have produced a well-written and engaging piece of social history comparable, no doubt, to what one could write for a number of historic towns, but none the worse for that. It is worthy of circulation well beyond the confines of the archaeological world to show how a local community gradually learns to engage with and value its buried heritage. In the early years we hear of the coming together of local amateurs and dignitaries, renowned scholars, such as Ian Richmond and Sheppard Frere, and the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments to create the Excavations Committee. There follows a section entitled ‘1960–1974 The Golden Years’ which describes the work of excavation directors John Wacher and Alan McWhirr in a manner both elegiac and nostalgic. Intermingled with the research achievements, we find lists of diggers past and a loving evocation of old dig headquarters endured, pubs visited and cake shops patronised. For someone who began his career at Winchester, in those happy, heady days of the Rescue movement, this all resonated very powerfully with me. As we come into the modern era the tone does become a little self-congratulatory, but perhaps that should be indulged since CA is now one of the best-managed and most effective of our archaeological contractors.

What about the excavation reports? None of the projects described was particularly large-scale and results in most cases are quite limited, but as a group they make a very significant contribution to knowledge; the whole is a good deal more than the sum of the parts. Much of the work came about as a result of the operation of PPG16, which has, of course, been enormously beneficial in allowing access and resources for archaeology in Cirencester as elsewhere. However, understanding of stratigraphic sequences, like some of those presented here (e.g. Bingham Hall site on Ermin Street, 35), may not simply be limited, but even erroneous if sites remain unexplored down to natural because of an over-rigid adherence to the principal of preservation in situ. I would also add that while some may have convictions, religious or otherwise, about leaving the dead where they lie, it has always struck me as idiotic to leave burials to who knows what fate in the ground (e.g. Old Tetbury Road site, 113) once their integrity has been compromised by excavation, however careful. However, these are matters which are largely beyond the power of an archaeological contractor to address. Regardless of the changing administrative or political context in which archaeology takes place, towns like Cirencester need people to love them and to take every opportunity with however humble a key-hole excavation or watching-brief to add to knowledge of their early history. What I have taken away from Cirencester Excavations 6 is that Neil Holbrook and his team clearly do love Cirencester and the town’s archaeology is in good hands.