Currently rebuilding an old bike from a frame I found. It's a dawes frame and the forks have a width of 82mm (approx). Is this right or are the forks damaged? I can not find a wheel with a hub of this width. Any help / advice appreciated!

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Most front forks are 100mm wide.

Currently, almost all road and most MTB fork dropouts are 100 mm but some older forks were different. Sheldon Brown lists two older standards at 91 mm for Department Store quality bikes and 96 mm for some older European, particularly French, bikes. If yours are truly 82 mm then either the fork is damaged or it was a very unusual proprietary size. You won't find a hub to fit.

I would expect a Dawes to be 100 mm. Assuming it's damaged, it may be able to be straightened and aligned back to 100 mm.

there is a shop tool, Park makes, your bike shop should own one,
to check the width and alignment.

Older 3-speeds often had 90mm fork spacing; not too far off what the OP reports.

What model Dawes are we talking about?

OK, Sheldon reported it as 91 mm but that's probably the same fork size.

Must be broke then! Rubbish. Thanks for all your comment. Do you know if you can put a new style fork onto an old bike? Don't know how to save this project otherwise.

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By "new style" do you mean a threadless fork? Yes you can but you will also need a new headset, stem and spacers along with the replacement fork. I assune your steerer diameter is 1" and that size is still easily available in threadless components.

You can still buy threaded forks so a direct replacement requiring only a new fork is a less expensive route. BTW, many bike shops will have a collection of take-off forks from owners who "upgraded" their older forks to threadless, carbon or both. Ask around and take your old fork to match the steerer diameter and length and fork blade length and you might get your replacement very inexpensively. The color can be matched with a rattle can or just paint it the currently fashionable flat black and everyone will think it's carbon.