Clare’s Listed Buildings and Town Trail
As an historic market ‘wool’ town Clare came into prominence in the medieval period as the wool trade expanded. You can learn more by joining a 1½ hour guided tour (every Saturday from April until the end of October, starting at 1.30pm at the Visitor Centre, opposite Platform One café, in Clare Castle Country Park) or using the Clare Town Trail booklet to explore in your own time.
Initially wool was exported to the continent and then, as wool was woven into broadcloth, its value rose. At that time wool and cloth became the greatest exports from England to the continent.
Clare has around 140 English Heritage listed buildings include six that are Grade I, and 11 that are Grade II*. The most interesting are from the 15th and 16th centuries owing their size and interest to the wealth of the cloth trade at that time. Exposed beams and jettied upper floors characterize timber-framed buildings at that time, although a number of jetties have been filled out, and many buildings were rendered in the 18th century, so that their original exteriors, although with notable exceptions, are no longer visible.
Exterior carvings include heraldic carving at the Ancient House (half of which is now the museum), with perhaps the most interesting one being over the entrance to the Swan in the High Street. Its nine-foot oak ‘pub sign’ was once probably the sill to an oriel window in the Castle. Its heraldry depicts the coat of arms or badges of Henry IVth, Prince Henry (who became Henry Vth) and the wealthy Mortimer family.
