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

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

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

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England. In 1980 the building was acquired by

Ipswich Borough Council Ipswich Borough Council is the local authority for Ipswich, a non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Suffolk, England. It is the second tier of a two-tier system, fulfilling functions such as refuse ...

. The building sports detailed

pargeting Pargeting (or sometimes called Wall pargetting) is a decorative or waterproof 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 co ...

, 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. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

are shown—notably lacking

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, which had not been discovered at the time. Africa is represented by a naked man holding a

spear A spear is a polearm 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 hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

, 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. 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 The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, also referred to as the royal arms, are the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently Charles III. They are used by the Government of the United Kingdom and by other The Crown, Crown instit ...

of King Charles II, and the words ''"

Honi soit qui mal y pense (, ; ) is a maxim (philosophy), maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning "shamed be whoever thinks ill of it", usually translated as "shame on anyone who think ...

"''. This is Old French for "Shame upon him who thinks evil of it", and is also the motto of the

Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...

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, Suffolk, Woodbridge and east of Ipswich. It is often referred to as "old Martlesham" by locals in order to distinguish this old village from the ...

. In the 16th century the house was owned by a string of local

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

s, 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, ...

, 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'.

Ownership by the Sparrow(e) family

The Sparrowe family became the owners of the house in 1603. 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

Pawsey Family

Twenty-first century

The Ancient House is currently owned by

. Lakeland was the main tenant until 2021. The

attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

is used as a small

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

for 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 Xylophagy, 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 Woodbo ...

and both dry and wet rot had set in, and

deathwatch beetle The deathwatch beetle (''Xestobium rufovillosum'') is a species of woodboring beetle that sometimes infests the structural timbers of old buildings. The adult beetle is brown and measures on average long. Eggs are laid in dark crevices in old ...

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 Timber framed buildings in Suffolk