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Fordwich

Fordwich
Town Hall, Fordwich, Kent.jpg
Fordwich Town Hall
Fordwich is located in Kent
Fordwich
Fordwich
Fordwich shown within Kent
Area 1.81 km2 (0.70 sq mi)
Population 381 (civil parish 2011)
• Density 210/km2 (540/sq mi)
OS grid reference TR179597
• London 65.8 miles
Civil parish
  • Fordwich
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town CANTERBURY
Postcode district CT2
Dialling code 01227
Police Kent
Fire Kent
Ambulance South East Coast
EU Parliament South East England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
KentCoordinates: 51°17′42″N 1°07′34″E / 51.295°N 1.126°E / 51.295; 1.126

Fordwich /ˈfɔːrdwɪ/ is a very small 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.

Although many miles inland, it was the main port for Canterbury, which traded directly with London and Channel ports and indirectly with the near Continent, before the Wantsum Channel silted up making the Isle of Thanet part of mainland England.

The town grew in the Middle Ages as a port for boats on their way upriver to Canterbury. All of the Caen stone used by the Normans to rebuild Canterbury Cathedral in the 12th and 13th centuries was landed at Fordwich. It later became a limb of the Cinque Ports. It lost its status as a town in 1880 when it no longer had a Mayor and Corporation. However, in a reorganisation in 1972, Fordwich was again made a town as much as anything because of its prior importance in what is now a rather sleepy corner of Kent. Fordwich Town Hall, supposedly the smallest in England, dates from the earlier period, having been rebuilt in 1555.

The ancient Church of St Mary the Virgin, now redundant but open to the public, and in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, contains part of a carved sarcophagus reputed to have contained the remains of St Augustine of Canterbury. The 16th-century building next the Town Hall, now known as Watergate House, was the family home of John and Gregory Blaxland, early 19th-century pioneers of Australia.


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