Churches of the British Isles

Halcon Baptist Church occupies a corner slot at the south-west corner of the pedestrian-only junction between Crossway and Valley Road in one of the most socially-deprived areas of Somerset. The church was founded in 1939 and celebrated its seventieth anniversary in 2009. Although it's not clear from the attendant publicity that the present building is the same one, the OS 1:25,000 map of 137-1961 does show a place of worship on this already built-up estate.

All Saints Church Halcon is outside the western end of Outer Circle, overlooking Roman Road. Its parish covers much of the eastern side of Taunton and three housing estates: the pre-war Lambrook and Halcon, and the post-war Lane estate. The church was erected in the early 1950s, although the frontage was remodelled in the 1970s with the addition of the current doorway and striking stained glass windows on either side. To the rear lies a hall and vicarage.

Bathpool Independent Chapel, in which meets the Taunton Church of the Nazarene, lies on the northern side of Bridgwater Road, opposite Yew Tree Lane. The Church of the Nazarene is an international evangelical denomination in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition with worldwide bases. The current blue information board and the text 'Welcome to Bathpool Chapel' appeared around 2012. A Community Prayer Garden lies alongside the chapel building, on the right here.

The former All Saints Church Bathpool can be found behind its churchyard wall and iron gate, on the eastern side of Bridgwater Road and the south bank of the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal from which it is heavily screened by trees. This was a mission church for West Monkton parish, dedicated by the bishop of the diocese in 1897 and consecrated by the bishop of Bath and Wells in 1959. It closed in 1981 and is now a private dwelling called The Old Church House.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is on the eastern side of Dean Gate Avenue on the town's very eastern edge. A footpath entrance to Barrow Drive lies to the immediate north-west of the building. The Latter-Day Saints were founded in 1830, arriving in Britain in 1837. A Taunton branch was formed in 1854, meeting in a private room in Princes Street. The congregation gained this building in 2010, and a daughter meeting commenced in Washford in 2014.

Riverside (New) Church, Lambrook, is at the western 'wedge' inside the meeting point between Roman, Lambrook, and Hamilton roads. In 1997 Riverside Church was formed on its old site at Marshalsea House near the River Tone. In 2001 the church purchased the old telephone exchange in Hamilton Road and kept the name Riverside Church. Fountainhead Christian Fellowship which formed part of it cannot be located - this group may have met in a private house.

Lisieux Way Methodist Church is on the eastern side of Severn Drive, about fifty metres north of Lisieux Way itself and half-hidden from the approach road by a mass of greenery. The church has a 1994 foundation stone dedication. 'Budding Marvellous', partnered by Somerset Wildlife Trust, started in a strip of land behind the church when the Reverend Chris Brown gave permission for Taunton Association for the Homeless to turn it in to a community wildlife garden.

All Saints Church Trull lies in a churchyard on the northern side of Church Road, flanked on either side by Wild Oak Lane and Mill Lane. On 5 November 1308 Walter Haselshaw, bishop of Bath and Wells, ordered that Trendle (Trull) should have its own vicar as soon as a vicarage could be provided. The original church is thought to have been built around the middle of the 1300s. The base of the tower - the oldest part of the present church - certainly dates from that period.

The south aisle (seen here) was added in the same century and the north aisle a century later. The Victorians undertook certain 'improvements' in 1863 which resulted in a good deal of local dispute. It is probable that the pulpit, regarded as one of the church's special treasures, was moved from the centre of the church to its present position at that time. In existence by 1569, when the building's seating plan was recorded, its precise origins are not known.

All photos on this page by P L Kessler. Former Taunton Deane area church names and locations kindly confirmed by South West Heritage Trust, with additional information from The Chapels Society visit to Mid-Somerset, 28 September 2013, by Peter Daniel, David Dawson, and Roger Thorne.