4th edition) said that Clare was "a poor town and dirty, the streets being unpaved. But yet the civil and spiritual courts are held at it and it has a good church; it shows still the ruins of a strong castle, and an old monastery. It has a manufacture of says…". He also describes great droves of turkeys being taken to Colchester from Clare, 300 to 1,000 birds at a time. Managing a Masterpiece As part of the Heritage Lottery Funded "Managing a Masterpiece" scheme, in April and May 2011 Access Cambridge Archaeology gave residents, school pupils and members of the public the chance to carry out their own small archaeological 'test pit' excavations throughout Clare, to find out how the town developed over hundreds – even thousands – of years in the past. Early results indicated the presence of Saxon pottery across many sites – the first evidence of Clare's importance before the Normans. Further excavations within the castle grounds took place in 2013 and the discovery of human remains suggested a cemetery was located there, before the castle's construction. Architecture There are 133 listed buildings in Clare. An online map is available, with links to each building. Over 40 of the listed buildings are 16th-century or earlier. There are three Grade 1 religious buildings: the Priory, the Priory Chapel and the parish church of Ss Peter and Paul. There are three Grade 1 domestic houses: Cliftons and Nethergate House in Nethergate Street and the Ancient House in Church Street. The Ancient House, which has florid pargeting, is in part a museum, in part available as a holiday-let through the Landmark Trust. A rare 13th-century flint-lined well has been found in the garden behind the No 1 Deli Cafe. There are fine examples of timber-framed houses throughout the town, from the 14th to the 16th centuries, plus Georgian and Victorian houses. Most of the later houses are constructed in Flemish bond, but there is one example of a rat trap bond in Station Road. Some of the weavers' cottages had cellars through which water ran for fulling their cloth. The heart of the town is a conservation area, one of 35 recognised by St Edmundsbury Council. A full appraisal of buildings was carried out in 2008 within the conservation plan. Suffolk has no natural building stone. Buildings are mainly of timber, usually oak beams with wattle and daub infill,