St Edmund's Church is a former

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church in Vobster,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. It was built between 1845 and 1848 to the designs of

Benjamin Ferrey Benjamin Ferrey List of Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA (1 April 1810 – 22 August 1880) was an English architect who worked mostly in the Gothic revival architecture, Gothic Re ...

and closed as a place of worship in 1981. The former church is now in part studio and part residential use and is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

History

St Edmund's was built as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

to serve the village of Vobster, in the parish of Mells. Construction of the church commenced in 1845 to the designs of

. The pulpit and font of

Caen stone Caen stone () is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about 167 million years ...

were completed in 1847 by Mr. Rowe of

St Sidwells St Sidwell's is an area east of Exeter city centre in the ward of Newtown, Exeter, Newtown. Formerly a village in its own right, St Sidwell's grew in importance along with Exeter thanks to its location on the main cart track between Exeter and t ...

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

. The church was consecrated by the

Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of D ...

, the Right Rev. Richard Bagot, on 1 November 1848.

Closure and subsequent use (1981–)

By the 1980s, the church's congregation had dropped to three or four regular members and it was closed as a place of worship in 1981. The

formally declared the church redundant on 1 August 1983. It was subsequently put up for sale, minus the churchyard, by the

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

for £10,000 through Cluttons of Wells, where it received interest from several parties wishing to convert it into a home. In April 1985, local residents launched a campaign led by

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...

businessman Roy Withers to save the church, either by encouraging the diocese to reopen it or by raising the funds to purchase it for community use, thereby preventing it from being used for storage or being bought by a developer. Campaigners argued that the village's population had grown since the church's closure and a letter was sent to the Bishop of Bath and Wells calling for the church to be reinstated. On 14 September 1985, a meeting was held at the church by church leaders, including the

Archdeacon of Bath The Archdeacon of Bath is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells. The post, having oversight over the archdeaconry of Bath, has existed since the twelfth century. The archdeaconry includes List of eccles ...

and the

Archdeacon of Wells The Archdeacon of Wells has been a senior clergy position in the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells since the English reformation, before which it was part of the Roman Catholic Church. The post, having oversight over the archdeaconry of ...

, to allow residents to present their case. The meeting was attended by approximately 70 residents and concluded that the church could reopen if the village proved it had the resources to run it. Campaigners intended to raise the necessary funds, which at the time of its closure was an estimated £12,000 for repairs and improvement work. After the attempt to raise funds and reopen the church failed, a new scheme was put forward in 1987 to convert the building into a photographic studio, which received the approval of local residents. Mendip District Council approved the plans on 4 August 1987 and the building was subsequently converted into Vobster Church Studio. A darkroom and printing room were formed within the nave; all of the pews were removed, but the church's font, pulpit and the stained glass in the chancel were retained. A change of use was approved in 1996 to convert part of the studio into a living area. In 2014, retrospective permission was granted for the creation of a new lobby and washroom on the ground floor, the extension of the first floor library and the addition of a new second floor as a bedroom.

Architecture

St Edmund's is built of coursed and squared

Doulting stone Doulting is a village and civil parish east of Shepton Mallet, on the A361, in the county of Somerset, England. History The parish of Doulting was part of the Whitstone Hundred. The parish includes the village of Bodden, which was founded ...

. It is made up of a two-bay nave, two-bay chancel, north vestry and south porch.

References

{{Reflist Churches in Somerset Former churches in Somerset Grade II listed churches in Somerset Church of England church buildings in Mendip District Grade II listed buildings in Mendip District