In March 2015, The Sunday Times and Zoopla[2] placed Clare amongst the top 50 UK rural locations, having "period properties and rich history without the chocolate-box perfection – and the coach trips".

The ice sheet, which produced the chalky boulder clay, rolled upon a bed of glacial sand and gravel, and formed the flattened character of the area today.

In 2009 during a recent rebuilding programme at Clare Community Primary School, postholes of a late Bronze/Early Iron Age structure were located, with an associated ring ditch.

[16] This supports the view that Clare Camp (OS TL768458, at the north end of the town, just behind Bridewell Street) with its double ditches, one of the most impressive of its kind in Suffolk, is from that period; with an area of 2.9 hectares, it is second only to Burgh Castle.

A Roman boundary ditch and posthole has been found just off Nethergate Street;[19] a strap fitting,[20] coins,[21] sepulchral urns[22] and a bronze figurine of Mercury or a dancing boy[23] have been unearthed in various locations.

Archaeological digs and magnetic survey at Wixoe, as part of the Abberton pipeline installation,[24] revealed a small town occupied from 100-400AD.

No clear trace of this road can now be seen between Wixoe and Cavendish: the agger in the form of terrace has either been eroded by ploughing or incorporated into field boundaries, as is typical in East Anglia.

It possibly derives from the "clear" nature of the Chilton Stream as it flows through the town, but from a Latin word rather than a Celtic one as was previously thought.

William the Conqueror re-granted the land to one of his closest supporters in the Norman Conquest of 1066, Richard fitz Gilbert of Bienfaite, Count of Brionne, the son of one of his cousins, along with 170 other manors, 95 of them in Suffolk.

In 1124 Gilbert's son Richard de Clare removed the Benedictines to a new foundation in Stoke-by-Clare, the origin of today's Stoke College.

The funeral was one of the major public events in Clare's history, attended by royalty and nobility, including her brother King Edward II.

Hatton wrote: "Fifty-two years after her burial the grave was opened and her body found to be incorrupt...Of the many miracles wrought by God's grace through her (were) especially...the cure of toothache, back-ache and fever".

At the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, he was accused of cowardice and treason when he recommended holding the better ground rather than attacking Bruce's densely packed pike walls.

Under Queen Mary, the lands of the Honour of Clare were transferred to the Duchy of Cornwall (which is why today William, Prince of Wales will technically appoint the Vicar).

The manor's home farm provided the bulk of basic foodstuffs from the pastures and meadows plus fruit from the orchards of pear, apple and cherry.

There were flint paths, seats, a glass aviary, fountains, a deer enclosure and a lion house (keeping exotic animals was the fashion).

Local people organised themselves into guilds, not for mercantile or craft purposes, but as religious fraternities, dedicated to assisting the poor, praying for dead members, contributing to the church and priory.

Flowing water was essential for the purpose of fulling – so production concentrated on locations along rivers such as Clare, Cavendish, Glemsford and Sudbury.

[38] Clothiers organised and financed the industry, putting out work across the town, supporting road maintenance, providing alms to the poor, embellishing the priory and church, building substantial houses for themselves.

At the same time as the major disruption to the social and religious life of the townspeople took place in the 1540s, the introduction of the spinning wheel and the importation of newer fabrics from the continent led to a fall in the manufacture of broadcloth.

'A bay was lighter and finer than modern baize.... A say was a fine durable cloth, made entirely of wool with a texture resembling serge'.

Opposition to newer technology appeared in Clare and surrounding districts in 1816 and four local men were gaoled after being convicted of burning a threshing machine.

[41] This was the Year Without a Summer caused by volcanic dust in the atmosphere: the local press reported floods, 'long continued wet weather',[42] unripened wheat and widespread civil unrest.

William Camden in his Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (1610) wrote: 'On the South side wee saw the river Stour, which immediately from the verie spring head spreadeth a great Mere called Stourmmere, but soone after, drawing it selfe within the bankes, runneth first by Clare, a noble village which had a castle, but now decaied, and gave name to the right noble familie of the Clares'.

[43] Daniel Defoe in A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1748 4th edition) said that Clare was "a poor town and dirty, the streets being unpaved.

The complex of stationmaster's house, ticket and parcels office, waiting rooms, platforms and goods shed has been listed, as the only complete set of 1865 GER buildings to survive intact.

Crossing the Stour en route to Ashen is a three span cast iron bridge, built when Clare was on a main highway between London and Bury St Edmunds.

He and his fellows were prosecuted for his beliefs and 'was debarred of the use of their meeting-house, and obliged to meet in the street during the cold winter, where they received much personal abuse'.

In the Tudor period, the area is described as: "Wood-pasture region, mainly pasture, meadow, engaged in rearing and dairying with some bee-keeping, horse-breeding and poultry.

Unusually for a settlement of just over 2,000, it has a full range of services: bank, butcher, doctors, library, co-op, off-licence, ironmonger, five cafes, four public houses – three serving food – one a hotel, restaurants, take-aways (Chinese, fish and chips), four antique shops – one a large emporium, pharmacy, hairdressers, post office with news and stationery, vintage fashion boutique, four churches, physiotherapy, photographer, health food, alternative medicine, undertaker, art gallery, architect, gift shops, optician, florist, accountant, solicitor, beauty treatments, diet advice, farm food and pet supplies, sandwich shop, estate agents, bed and breakfasts, bookshop, stables, 2 auctions, printer, domestic help, Japanese knotweed treatment, advertising, car bodywork, car repairs, architectural ironmongery, taxi, 9-hole golf course, garden bulbs, jam maker, fisheries, website design, many trades, ... farms, pedigree sheep and the Nuttery, a community woodland, winner of the Best Conservation Project in the Anglia in Bloom competition 2011.