Modern technology may help hotels like the Swan to maintain good contemporary standards. The introduction of flat screen televisions frees bedrooms from the tyranny of needing an armoire to house the bulk of a standard crt set, freeing up space. The use of low voltage or fibre optic lighting allows for more dramatic lighting in spaces whilst minimising the number of fittings needing to hang on walls or from ceilings. Where headroom can be so variable and walls are crisscrossed with heavy timbers this also gives the designer more flexibility in providing the guest with a visually comfortable environment whilst still meeting the need for effective lighting. In an Hotel of this age with its small windows the lighting is a major key to success in renovation. Lavenham may be an historical throwback but its very history generates business from tourism and the ancillary ‘hangers on’ such as the heritage industry, who occupy one of the new units in the village's small business development.

The tourism industry obviously creates demand for the business and meeting rooms in the hotel, and the history of the village going back in time, with its magnificent church from the 1500’s, brings tourists as well. More recent history has left its mark on the hotel too, presenting other conservation tasks. In the bar is a wall inscribed by bomber crews from WW2. Young men flying to war against fascism and tyranny, British, Canadian and American, have left their names written on the plasterwork between the oak beams. This part of Suffolk was not just home to sheep, as in later years its landscape became home to air forces and armies.

Though all these changes have left their mark on the Swan, the major remarkable fact is that it is still there as an hotel after over 500 years. Other hotels housed in historic buildings have featured in our reviews – the Kimpton in Washington, the Intercontinental Grand in Paris, for example. Few hotels have structures that will ensure survival for over 500 years. Few indeed will still be around to present designers with the challenges that generations have met successfully through an existence that has seen an Inn become an Hotel become part of a chain and back to being family owned again. Passing through many hands the Swan is about to become an idiosyncratic part of the boutique generation, and maybe to start a journey through another half millennium.