In the centre of the pretty little town of Reepham there sits a churchyard with two churches in it, the parish churches of Whitwell and Reepham, one hiding behind the other. Once there were three churches, for the remains of the third survive in the south-west corner of the churchyard. The background to this unusual 'three-in-one'' arrangement is discussed on the page for Reepham church.

Whitwell's pretty pinnacled tower is the most prominent of the two survivors, overlooking as it does Reepham market place and screening Reepham's own parish church behind it. Because of this, it is the one that people tend to think of as 'the church', although in fact it has been redundant for half of a century, and is used as a parish hall. This is a most convenient arrangement, and saves Reepham parish from the need to build a meeting room, kitchen or toilets in the churchyard. An access corridor leads from the south-west corner of St Mary, but it is kept locked apart from during services.

St Michael is the prettiest of the two surviving churches, very much a typical, small rural parish church, without aisles or clerestory but with pleasing elaborations and decorations from the later Medieval period. The Victorians made a good job of patching it up. The tower is offset nicely by the clock that overlooks the market place. The tower retains its eight bells whilst Reepham's church has just two, and so when the peals are heard over this part of Norfolk it is Whitwell's bells that are being rung, not Reepham's. It seems inevitable that St Michael would find the role that now it has. There are positive uses of redundancy.

Simon Knott, June 2021

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