Reepham and Salle Moor Hall

A market town with a brewing history and intriguing churches

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Start: Market Square Distance: 3.6 miles (5.8 km) Climbing: 27 metres
Grid Ref: TG 09928 22861 Time: 2 hours Rating: Easy
GPX Route File Google Earth File About Reepham
Statistics
Start: Market Square Distance: 3.6 miles (5.8 km)
Climbing: 27 metres Grid Ref: TG 09928 22861
Time: 2 hours Rating: Easy
GPX Route File Google Earth File
Ordnance Survey Explorer Map (1:25,000)

The Walk: The market town of Reepham is set in gently undulating arable land in the heart of Norfolk. It dates back at least as far as the Domesday Book, which records a 'Refham', and a market was held here even before 1276, when a charter was granted to John de Vaux, then lord of the manors of Refham and Hackford.

Parson James Woodforde was a regular visitor to the market, as a century later was Whitwell Elwin, rector of nearby Booton and famous in the 19th century for his editorship of the works of Alexander Pope.

Reepham Market SquareReepham Market Square
St Mary's church and St Michael's church, ReephamSt Mary's church and St Michael's church, Reepham

In the 18th century, Reepham was at the centre of an important barley growing and brewing region, and boasted 13 pubs. The wealth generated at this time is reflected in the quiet grandeur of the market square, which is lined with listed red brick Georgian buildings.

The walk begins outside one of them. The Old Brewery House, known locally as Dial House (from the sundial above its generous portico). Though beer is no longer produced here, you can still enjoy a local brew from the Reepham Brewery at the edge of the town.

The route leaves the square to take you along Back Street, where tiny cottages crowd around a large timber-framed house with a jettied upper storey. At the end of the street is the oval churchyard. This acre of land is unique in that it once contained three churches, and it still serves two. The place where the parishes of Reepham, Whitwell and Hackford meet. It was the original site of the market.

All three churches dated from the early 13th century. All that remains of Hackford's Church, which burnt down in 1543, is a fragment of the tower wall. The perpendicular tower of St Michael's, Whitwell, dominates the scene, and the church contains a fine Jacobean pulpit. St Michael's is linked by its choir vestry to St Mary's, Reepham, which boasts an important 14th century altar tomb to Sir Roger de Kerdiston, carved in superb detail.

Reepham MoorReepham Moor
Salle Moor HallSalle Moor Hall

The route follows the road, then heads up a narrow path. On your right are the aviaries of the 19th century Moor House. Reepham Moor was an area of low, wet land that was drained to become the common, and divided into tithes.

You follow a narrow lane, then cross a field to the old railway line, one of two that served Reepham. As you follow a grassy track, the cathedral like church at Salle is on the skyline to your right. Built around 1420, the Church of St Peter and St Paul is one of the finest 15th century churches in the country.

After strolling alongside a narrow coppiced wood, where you may see partridges, pheasants and rabbits, you cross a field and follow the drive to Salle Moor Hall. This flint house is thought to have been built by Geoffrey Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's grandfather, and was certainly owned by James Boleyn, her nephew. Much enlarged in around 1840, it became a shooting hall of the local gentry. Earthworks around the three sides of the house are evidence of a much earlier moated manor.

From the hall, the route leads over a field and through narrow pastures back to Reepham. You enter the town near one of the old station buildings, and follow a quiet lane back to the market square.


Acknowledgments: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.

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