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.
Though small, the town hall may have been the venue for most performances by touring entertainers for which there are extant payment records between 1568--1633.
Extant and still in use by the town council, it is billed as the smallest town hall still in use in Britain. The hall operates as a museum and is open to the public at specified times.
13th c. First town hall built (Rigold, 'Two Types' 17).
1544 Upper level hall likely built or substantially reconstructed. At some point the upper level of the building was clad in limestone plaster.
late 19th c. Plaster on the facade removed, revealing the herring-bone facing. Since then the interior has had some renovation, with the removal of fascia-board from the ceiling, revealing beam studding.
1885 The town lost its corporate status, so the town hall subsequently ceased to serve an official civic function.
1972 Town status restored.
REED Kent: Diocese of Canterbury 1.596--604
