The Ancient House

A medieval timber-framed building sitting on the church green at Clare, an unspoilt Suffolk market town. This welcoming and comfortable house exudes history.

A local Landmark

Standing at the south-west corner of St Peter and St Paul’s churchyard, the Ancient House is a picturesque medieval timber-framed building in this remarkably unspoilt market town. Its elaborate pargeting (raised plaster decoration), is a distinctive form of vernacular decoration in East Anglia and bears the date 1473. This is one of the most celebrated examples of the art in the country. There is a handsome moulded timber ceiling in the ground floor chamber, and elaborately carved oriel windows there and in the first floor bedroom. Staying here you will have an enviable close-up view of the great wool church and keep time by the chimes of its clock.

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.