Pargeting, or sometimes called pargetting, is a form of decorative plastering applied to building walls. Pargetting derives from the word "parget", which is a Middle English term that probably originated from the Old French 'pargeter' / 'parjeter', meaning to throw about, or 'porgeter', to roughcast a wall. However, the term is more usually applied only to the decoration in relief of the plastering between the studwork on the outside of half-timber houses, or sometimes covering the whole wall.

Some parget work is done with stamps but the most intricate is designed and modeled by hand while the plaster is still moist. Sometimes these devices are done in relief, and in the time of Elizabeth I represented figures, birds, and foliages. Pargetting developed in England after Henry VIII employed Italian craftsmen to decorate his Nonsuch Palace. Pargetting is a layman's interpretation of the highly ornate Renaissance plasterwork seen at the time. When it was in high fashion it could be found right across the country and up into Scotland, adorning both internally and externally, but as preferences changed it became isolated to areas where building materials suited it best, namely East Anglia. The skill, like many traditional crafts all but died out with only a few dedicated craftsmen practicing it (Stephen Welsh of Suffolk and Bill Sergent of Cambridgeshire) but along with sympathetic architects like Stephen Mattick it was gradually brought back into public awareness. Now Pargetting is seeing a revival and it is even possible to find second and third generation Pargetters like Matt Kent and Johanna Welsh continuing on the tradition.