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Clare is a small village on the north bank of the River Stour in Suffolk, England. Clare is 14 miles (23 km) from Bury St Edmunds and 9 miles (14 km) from Sudbury. It lies in the "South and Heart of Suffolk". As a cloth town, it is one of Suffolk's "threads". Clare won Village of the Year in 2010 and Anglia in Bloom award for Best Large Village 2011 for its floral displays in 2011. In March 2015 The Sunday Times and Zoopla placed Clare amongst the top 50 UK rural locations, having "period properties and rich history without the chocolate-box perfection - and the coach trips". Within Suffolk, Walberswick was also mentioned.

Clare and its vicinity reveals evidence of man's long habitation throughout prehistory. The historical record demonstrates a community which changes and yet persists across centuries, from the Norman Conquest through religious strife, agricultural upheaval and industrial revolution to the present day.

The town hosts Stour Valley Community School, one of the very first free schools established by the government, opened in September 2011.

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.

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, or brick. Brickyards abounded in Suffolk. Clare had its own brickyard in the 19th-century, run by the Jarvis family. Examples of brick from Gestingthorpe and Ballingdon can also be found, both Suffolk whites and reds. Flint is used as an infill or in walling. Where stone is found it was largely imported from Barnack, near Peterborough. This was transported along the Fenland waterways and brought into Suffolk, either overland from Cambridge or possibly by sail to Manningtree and then up the Stour.

The 13th-century flint-stone castle keep sits upon a 70 feet (21 m) high motte overlooking the town on the banks of the River Stour. Parts of the inner and outer baileys still exist. The castle is part of the Clare Castle Country Park which has the distinction of containing the only (now decommissioned) railway station built within a castle in the UK. The station was built by the Great Eastern Railway on the Stour Valley Railway and closed in 1967. 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. The park has 25 acres (10 ha) of landscaped parkland, interlaced with water in the old moats. The Stour Valley Path crosses the park.

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. It was Sir William Cubitt's second design for a bridge. The date of completion 1813 can be seen above the central arch. The iron was almost certainly cast at Ransomes of Ipswich, a foundry mostly known for agricultural machinery for whom Cubitt worked. Later they supplied the new railways across East Anglia. In good condition, the bridge is Suffolk's oldest iron bridge still in use.