IT is impossible to realise just howmuch history is inside Harwich’s Guildhall by looking from the outside.

But once you set foot in the door, it is impossible to escape it.

Although it was once a pub called the Bear Inn, what was then known as a corporation bought the building in 1673 for the princely sum of £200 and transformed it into a guildhall and jail.

After some remodelling in 1769, the building now stands as you find it today, and houses some incredible secrets.

On the ground floor is an old jail cell, with walls that are covered in carvings of ships, a windmill, church buildings and even men being hanged.

Although the markings cannot be exactly dated, honorary archivist Ray Plummer can piece together clues as to when they were scratched in.

“The carvings were done after 1769. The earliest date on the wall is 1777 and there is a ship flying what looks like the Stars and Stripes, and it is known an American warship captured the Harwich packet boat in that year,” he said.

“French sailors who had been captured and imprisoned would have had memories of the old ships and it looked like it was something of a pastime to scratch them in.”

TO READ THE FULL GUILDHALL FEATURE SEE THIS WEEK'S HARWICH AND MANNINGTREE STANDARD.