The Ancient House, also known as Sparrowe's House, is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

dating from the 15th century located in the Buttermarket area of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

, Suffolk, England. In 1980 the building was acquired by

Ipswich Borough Council Ipswich Borough Council, founded in 1974 after the abolition of the County Borough of Ipswich, governs the non-metropolitan district of Ipswich in Suffolk. It is the second tier of a two-tier system, fulfilling functions such as refuse collecti ...

. The building sports detailed

pargeting Pargeting (or sometimes pargetting) is a decorative or waterproofing plastering applied to building walls. The term, if not the practice, is particularly associated with the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. In the neighbouring county of Nor ...

, and also elaborate wood carvings around the front of the house. Four panels of pargeting show a Tudor impression of the world. The continents

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, America,

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

are shown—notably lacking Australia, which had not been discovered at the time. Africa is represented by a naked man holding a

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

, Asia by a horse and a mosque-like building, Europe by a woman with a horse and a church-like building, and America by a man with a dog at his feet. The building features the

Ipswich window An Ipswich window is a variety of oriel window in which the window juts out from the main wall on an upper floor without reaching down to the ground floor. However, its distinguishing feature which marks it as different from a Venetian window is i ...

. The front of the building as it can be seen today (in a restored state), was not an original feature—it was added by Robert Sparrowe between 1660 and 1670. It bears the Royal Arms of King Charles II, and the words ''"Honi soit qui mal y pense"''. This is Old French for "Shame upon him who thinks evil of it", and is also the motto of the Order of the Garter.

Pargeting

Images showing the four known continents represented in pargeting.
File:Ancienthouse_africa.jpg, Africa File:Ancienthouse_america.jpg, America File:Ancienthouse_asia.jpg, Asia File:Ancienthouse_europe.jpg, Europe

History

The earliest reference to the house date to the 14th century, when it was owned by Sir Richard of

Martlesham Martlesham is a village in Suffolk, England about two miles (3 km) South-West of Woodbridge and East of Ipswich. It is often referred to as "old Martlesham" by locals in order to distinguish this old village from the much more recent Martl ...

. In the 16th century the house was owned by a string of local merchants, including George Copping, a

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...

and

fishmonger A fishmonger (historically fishwife for female practitioners) is someone who sells raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers can be wholesalers or retailers and are trained at selecting and purchasing, handling, gutting, boning, filleting, displaying, m ...

, who acquired the property in 1567. It was Copping who commissioned the panelling of the ground-floor room at the front of the house. He also built the 'long gallery'. The Sparrowe family became the owners of the house in 1603, and continued ownership for the next 300 years. They promoted a legend that a hidden room in the house, fitted up as a secret place of worship for Catholics in the time of the Civil Wars, served Charles II as a hiding place while he was in flight after being defeated at the Battle of Worcester. The legend is unlikely to be true, since Ipswich is over 100 miles from any location Charles is known to have visited.The Monarch's Way Route
. Retrieved 1 October 2019

Today

The Ancient House is currently owned by

, with Lakeland being the main tenant until 2021. There is also a small art gallery in the attic, which houses occasional exhibitions.

Restoration

By 1979 the condition of the house was so bad that it was in danger of collapsing. The foundations had sunk, among other structural problems. In addition,

woodworm A woodworm is the wood-eating larva of many species of beetle. It is also a generic description given to the infestation of a wooden item (normally part of a dwelling or the furniture in it) by these larvae. Types of woodworm Woodboring beetle ...

and both dry and wet rot had set in, and deathwatch beetle was rife. Renovation began in 1984, and no part of the building was untouched. The foundations were underpinned, the rot and infestations were eradicated, floors were strengthened, plasterwork was restored, the windows were re-leaded and features were exposed. The renovation was not without its problems: the foundations had sunk, but the heavy fireplaces had sunk at a different rate.

References

External links

{{Authority control Houses completed in the 15th century Houses in Suffolk Grade I listed buildings in Ipswich Grade I listed houses Buildings and structures in Suffolk Timber framed buildings in Suffolk