The Ancient House

Sleeps: 2

Standing on a church green in the pretty Suffolk market town of Clare, the Ancient House is just as its name suggests: a higgledy-piggledy timber-framed building that bears the date 1473, and exudes history and careful craftsmanship from every nook and cranny.

A local Landmark

The house is celebrated locally for its elaborate raised plaster decoration, or ‘pargeting’; a distinctive form of vernacular decoration in East Anglia. This just happens to be one of the most celebrated examples of this art form in the country, but it’s not the only feature to look out for in this tiny time capsule. There is also a handsome moulded timber ceiling in the ground floor chamber, and elaborately carved oriel windows on both floors. Supporting the chamber window is a finely carved oak bracket containing the arms of the Hamelden family, supported by two leaf-clad woodwoses (wild men of the woods).

Tudor Suffolk

Close by is Clare Priory, founded for the Austin Friars in 1248, the earliest house of the order in England, and The Cliftons, a building whose exuberant 16th-century brick chimneys are richly decorated with circular shafts, Tudor patterns and star tops. Beyond there is a wealth of little-changed Suffolk villages to discover, with some of the country’s finest Tudor brickwork.