The town hall is a 2-storey timber frame building constructed over a mixed rubble and brick ground floor and jettied on 3 sides, overlooking the River Stour. It may sit on the site of an earlier 13th c. guildhall.

The ground level served as town gaol and stores; the hall was on the upper storey. Before the river silted up Fordwich was the closest port to Canterbury. An extension on the back of the hall housed a crane used to unload and load boats with shipments to and from the larger city. The quay and the crane were important sources of revenue for the small town.