Autumn 2004, my husband John and myself with our family of 3 children and associated animals started looking in earnest for a new home.
Our present situation was that we had sold our previous home in a part exchange, done up the part exchange and then sold that house on again, we were now in rented accomodation with our funds to buy.
Unfortunately at this time the housing market was just going crazy, places were selling fast and the prices were rising weekly it seemed. Despite searching the internet literally from john o groats to lands end, and registering our interests with many many estate agents I hadn't been able to find anything that we could afford that fitted our requirements and ticked all our boxes..........
Just by chance I came across the particulars for The Agapemone Chapel, in Spaxton, Somerset. I had been to Spaxton once as a child but I couldn't remember much at all, all I knew about Spaxton was that it was near Bridgwater. You knew you were at Bridgwater when travelling on the M5 southwards because of the pungent smell that the plastics factory caused, - this has since closed down, and the smell has now gone thank goodness !
We travelled south from our previous home in Gloucestershire to view. Following Greenslade Taylor hUnts directions we found our way through to the west side of Bridgwater, and started to head out on the Durleigh Road. We still find ourselves remembering this first drive now, the lane seems to go on and on, it's actually only 4 miles, but feels as if you are heading up towards the hills and to who knows where.
For us it seemed to get better, the more remote it was becoming the more we were getting excited. Eventually we reached Four Forks crossroads, and turned up Barford Lane. A line of cottages met us on the right hand side, These cottages all have interesting histories individually, the old Bakehouse, for instance, and also the old Agapemone cottages, alot of local and Quantock history is covered on
www.spaxton.net
Our first reactions were quite simply
WOW !
The chapel was obviously in need of work, it was very sad looking, with three very overgrown horrible fir trees obscuring the frontage, and the walls covered in dead ivy, with the leafless branches still clinging fast to the pink stone. With The two front windows boarded up we wondered what on earth the inside would be like, and what we had let ourselves in for.
The space that the chapel offered was quite simply huge, and there was already rooms at the back which had the basics, electricity, water and telephones were all connected, -a luxury for us as we were expecting to do a total build or renovation to get what we wanted, both of us had previously roughed it in damp residential caravans whilst building works went on, not really something that is much fun !
At the time we had no idea of the wonderful and interesting history of the place, we just looked at the hidden beauty, that was hiding underneath years of dust and dirt.
This page last modified on 23rd May 2009
The surrounding area nestled just beneath the Quantock hills and village of Spaxton were lovely. there is a local village junior school for Harri, Jess would go to Haygrove School 4 miles away, with a coach picking her up at the crossroads each morning and Jonathan went straight into his A level courses at Bridgwater college.
A small yard of 3 stables set in 10 acres complete with a small but usable sand school was vacant and available to rent within 2 minutes walk down near the crossroads.
Our offer was accepted and we became the new owners of the Agapemone Chapel.
As time went on we gradually learnt more and more of the fascinating history of the place. Much has been written in the past, and we have also managed to find out many interesting facts from locals.
Briefly, some of the most interesting of the former owners of the Chapel, who were here for quite a while was 'Bob and John' They used the chapel as a film studio, I believe around the 1960'/70's. Here they made the childrens programmes Trumpton and Camberwick green. This accounts for the 'thousands' of sound proofing cardboard tiles that were stuck to the walls. These tiles took us 3 whole days to remove, we had stacks of the things going into a skip.
Underneath, starting to reveal was the original lime plastered walls, with marks the left where the old picture rail used to be, and the decorative blockworking in the plaster, giving an imitation effect of old blockwork.
The top right hand internal corner of the church had in the past suffered a roof leak, and the floorboards had subsequently been taken up and replaced with plyboarding and screwed down, the plaster was in need of re-doing at this point urgently as it would literally fall off if it was touched. This area we tackled first and it is now back to as it was. Around all the windows is an attractive wooden mop stick to which the plaster stops with a V shape, these had all been filled in. We have gone from window to window, scraping out the V joint, and cleaning the beautiful stained glass windows freeing them from the green moss and cobwebs that presently engulf them.
Whilst spraying the floor for woodworm and with the plywood floor area up, we had a chance to view under the floor, we were pleased to find it completely dry, and very well built, something caught John's eye as he shone his torch further up under the floor, it seemed to be a large dark object. For a second or two he was a little alarmed and then realised what it was, unable to resist having a laugh at my expense, he called me over to have a look telling me 'look there something buried under the floor, what the hell is that ?' I must admit I am a little squeemish over spiders and things, so I was already wary about getting in a hole to the floor and squating down to have a look under the floor. We realised it was a large round plastic water tank - UNDER THE FLOOR ! of all places, we presume when the roof leaked someone must have used it to catch the water leaking in, and when the floor was replaced it was just simply deposited underneath until we discovered it some years later. The tank now serves as a watering hole for the ponies in one of the far paddocks so is put to good use.
The whole roof was replaced some 9 years before we purchased the Chapel apparently with a grant, a superb job was done, using welsh slates and excellent leadwork, all that is left is the damage the water did on the inside which is now really just cosmetic.
This photograph was sent to me by Kate Barlow, now resident in Toronto Canada, and the author of the very interesting and entertaining new book 'The Abode of Love - a memoir' published by Mainstream publishing company 2006.
Kate is the grand daughter of John Hugh Smyth Pigott and daughter of one of his three illegitimate children named Power, Glory and Life.
On her book release in April 2006 she made the trip over to the UK, and visited Spaxton, where we were lucky to meet her in person.
As a child she was brought up within the remnants of the victorian and Edwardian religious Agapemone cult, but was protected from a lot of the facts, and notorious family history by a 'wall of secrecy'
Later in life, recalling her conversations with the old ladies and putting together details from old photographs, she has written her book, detailing her life as she was growing up in the secretive Agapemone community.
photos taken of our windows from the inside, The English Antique Glass company are making some norman slab glass to replace some of the broken and missing glass in several of the windows. The work is specialist and entails a mould to be made up out of wood in which to pour the glass and get the desired affect and thickness. Norman slab glass was very popular in the late victorian times toward the art nouveau and arts and crafts period. The photographs show the varying thickness of the glass in the windows.
