Municipal building in Fordwich, Kent, England
Fordwich Town Hall is a municipal structure in King Street, Fordwich, Kent, England. The structure, which serves as the meeting place of Fordwich Town Council, is a Grade II* listed building.
History.
Elements of the building, which was designed in the Tudor style using timber frame 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 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 rubble, there were two wooden doors to the left and right of centre. On the first floor, which was jettied 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 courtroom was just long by wide.
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 muniments 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 for Canterbury.
The courtroom was used as an events venue from an early stage and 16th century performances included the Children of the Chapel 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 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 1883. It subsequently became the meeting place of Fordwich Town Council when it was reformed in 1976.
References.
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