The town grew in the Middle Ages as a port for boats on their way upriver to Canterbury. 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 reoganisation 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.
Fordwich is also known as the home of a legendary large fish (according to Izaak Walton): the Fordwich Trout. However, the Fordwich trout is no longer there for anglers to catch.
External link
Notes on Fordwich (http://www.digiserve.com/peter/fordwich.htm)
Fordwich appears to have been under the jurisdiction of Canterbury: the king and (later) the earl shared jurisdiction, while the cathedral itself had some jurisdiction there – its own quay, with adjacent property, later the subject of disputes with the abbey.
Yet, in the charter Fordwich was granted by Henry II (1184), the privileges obtained were typical of normal boroughs, and had none of the special features associated with the Cinque Ports; furthermore, the charter included the grant of a Merchant Gild, an institution not found in any of the Cinque Ports.
Whether or not that was the case, Fordwich did become an associate member of the Cinque Ports under its more thriving neighbour Sandwich, became in some regards subordinate to Sandwich, and reshaped its constitution somewhat to be more consistent with that of Sandwich.
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