Fordwich Town Hall is a municipal structure in King Street,

Fordwich Fordwich is a market town and a civil parish in east Kent, England, on the River Stour, northeast of Canterbury. It is the smallest community by population in Britain with a town council. Its population increased by 30 between 2001 and 2011. ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. The structure, which serves as the meeting place of Fordwich Town Council, is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Elements of the building, which was designed in the

Tudor style Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

using

timber frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

construction, date back to the early 15th century and an earlier building on the site was repaired in 1474. Records indicate that it was then substantially rebuilt in brick,

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

and stone in around 1544. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage facing south parallel with King Street. On the ground floor, which was built in a mixture of red brick and

, there were two wooden doors to the left and right of centre. On the first floor, which was

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the avail ...

out over the ground floor and finished in herringbone brickwork interspersed with a series of vertical posts, there was a central four-light casement window. Internally, the ground floor was used as a prison for petty criminals and the first floor was used as a courtroom. The first floor contained two cells, one managed under the jurisdiction of the borough council and the other one under the jurisdiction of the officials of St Augustine's Abbey. The

muniment A muniment or muniment of title is a legal term for a document, title deed or other evidence, that indicates ownership of an asset. The word is derived from the Latin noun ''munimentum'', meaning a "fortification, bulwark, defence or protection". ...

s chest in the courtroom dates back to the 13th century and the courtroom table was made in 1580. At the rear of the building, which fronts onto the River Great Stour, a crane house was built to accommodate the local crane which disembarked goods for the town which served as an

outport An outport is any port considered secondary to a main port (including a provincial one as opposed to a capital one), and often (especially) a small port built to support the commercial operations of a large port. The Port of Tilbury from the Port ...

for

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

. The courtroom was used as an events venue from an early stage and 16th century performances included the

Children of the Chapel The Children of the Chapel are the boys with unbroken voices, choristers, who form part of the Chapel Royal, the body of singers and priests serving the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they were called upon to do so. They were overseen ...

giving a rendition of Marlowe's play '' Dido, Queen of Carthage'' in 1590. There is also evidence that the King's Men, a troop which included

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

among its members, performed plays in the courtroom in October 1605. The courtroom continued to be used for criminal trials until 1855, and it also remained the meeting place for the council of the ancient borough of Fordwich, until it was abolished under the

Municipal Corporations Act 1882 The Municipal Corporations Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.50) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaced existing legislation governing municipal boroughs in England and Wales, and gave the corporations powers to make byelaws and ...

. It subsequently became the meeting place of Fordwich Town Council when it was reformed in 1976.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1544 City and town halls in Kent Grade II* listed buildings in Kent

History

See also

References