Whitwell Hall Continuation Society

Background

Whitwell Hall is a large Georgian House set in 40 acres of grounds near Reepham Norfolk. Its estate has woodland and water-meadows, streams, ponds and grassland. Its ornamental gardens bare the marks of countless children’s play and its trees are well climbed.

Originally purchased in 1938 as a home for a school (The Forest School) , Whitwell has been providing progressive children’s outdoor education that has focused on developing resilience and character, as much as skills and knowledge, for nearly 90 years. Whitwell has been at the centre of the Reepham community, providing services including the Reepham Rover minibus and a regular community lunch club. 

Whitwell Hall went into administration due to cash flow insolvency at the end of 2025 and immediately ceased operations with a devastating effect on many local people. Whitwell Hall is now up for sale! We want to either buy it or retrieve Whitwell Hall from administration by paying its debts in order to continue its educational and community impact. One of the things we aim to do is obtain an Asset of Community Value designation for Whitwell Hall. We’re doing this because we hope it will make it less attractive to corporate buyers. If you tell us your stories and memories about your time spent at Whitwell Hall, this will greatly strengthen our case. See below in ‘What can you do to help save Whitwell Hall?‘ for the link to share your stories.

Our vision

We aim to restore children’s outdoor education at Whitwell by providing activity camps as well as developing a new curriculum offer for schools focused on water and sustainability. We want to develop new endeavours, including Community Supported Agriculture, adult skills training, volunteering opportunities for environmental and climate action, and provide spaces for other local charities to use. This way, we will rebuild a robust diversified Whitwell Hall that can continue to provide incredibly valuable experiences for children across Norfolk and from further afield, whilst acting at the heart of the local community.

Who makes up Whitwell Hall Continuation Society?

Some of us are local, some come from far and wide…

Many of us experienced Whitwell Hall as children and it has a special place in our hearts. Some of us have spent a lifetime giving children memorable and formative experiences of community and the countryside. Many of us just love the idea of everyday people enjoying special places. We all know the restorative value of the wash of birdsong or the burble of a stream and have an understanding of how, in meeting the challenges of the great outdoors and supporting each other, we all grow to know ourselves, each other and our community more fully. To find out more about the people involved go here.

Many of our members are also drawn from charities that share a history with Whitwell Hall (see a history of Whitwell Hall here) these include:

Forest School Camps: About FSC – Forest School Camps

Braziers Park About — Braziers Park

Grith Pioneers: Grith Fyrd – Wikipedia

Order of woodcraft chivalry: Order of Woodcraft Chivalry – Wikipedia

To join us in our quest, email us at savewhitwellhall@gmail.com

Why education at Whitwell matters

Anxiety grows about the effect of screens, artificial intelligence and social media on young minds, but we all know about the beneficial consequences of:

• finding their own play
• spending time in nature
• being given permission to take their time
• making lifelong friends
• understanding the big wide world around them…

The benefits for our children are limitless.

We firmly believe that, in a world where many young people struggle to find trustworthy role models and mentors, and in which climate and ecological collapse is becoming tangible, the work of Whitwell Hall in teaching young people to use their heart, hands and head to build community and make a real difference in the world has never been so important.

What can you do to help save Whitwell Hall?

We will need to raise a lot of money, we estimate around £550 000. But we’re not quite ready to start fundraising yet. Right now we’d like you to join our mailing list and tell us your stories about your time spent at Whitwell Hall.

Please tell us your stories here.

If you’d like to keep in touch or support us in any other way, please join our mailing list here.

‘This organisation needs help. We need to get the local community involved in here [sic] to start raising money and persuading the administrators that this is the kind of thing we want to save for the local community.’

Jerome Mayhew, the Member of Parliament for Broadland and Fakenham