Christ Church is a former

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

church in

Long Load Long Load is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated on the River Yeo south of Somerton in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 332. History Long Load was recorded as ‘Lade’ in the late 12th century and ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. Designed by Charles Edmund Giles, it was built in 1854–1856 on the site of an earlier chapel and closed in 2011. The former church is now a private residence and a Grade II listed building.

History

A small chapel serving Long Load is known to have existed as early as 1418. By 1791, the building had become "ruinous" and was demolished and replaced in 1796 with a new building smaller than its predecessor. By the middle of the 19th-century, the 1796 chapel had also fallen into a dilapidated state. A scheme was devised and an appeal launched to raise £2,500 for the construction of a new church, a schoolroom and a parsonage. By April 1855, approximately £1,700 had been raised. The schoolroom was erected for a cost of £350 and was granted a license to be used as a place of worship until the new church was completed. The plans for the new church were drawn up by C. E. Giles of

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

, with accommodation for 279 persons. Construction commenced in 1854 and the church was consecrated by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Right Rev. Robert Eden, on 11 September 1856. The consecration was originally set for 4 September, but had to be postponed when the Bishop's wife fell ill. The estimated cost of the church was £1,300. Long Load was made its own ecclesiastical parish in 1867. Christ Church closed as a place of worship in 2011. It was subsequently sold and planning permission granted in 2014 to convert the building into a three-bedroom residence. Long Load and Long Sutton formed a new parish in 2017.

Architecture

Christ Church is built of Blue Lias stone with dressings in Hamstone. The Blue Lias was gifted by the

Earl of Burlington Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the d ...

and supplied from his quarries at Long Sutton. The church was made up of a five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, two-bay

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

, south porch, north-east vestry and spirelet with bell. A Jacobean pulpit was retained from the older chapel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Long Load, Christ Church Former churches in Somerset Church of England church buildings in South Somerset Grade II listed churches in Somerset Churches completed in 1856