Church back on the market just weeks after deal

A HISTORIC church in Portishead, sold earlier this month, has gone back up for sale.

The United Reformed Church, pictured, at Woodhill Road was sold to a property company earlier this month.

Now that company has instructed Bristol-based estate agents and auctioneers Hollis Morgan to sell the church, grade two listed Toll House and the former hall and its 0.3 acres of land at Woodhill Road at auction.

The hall, which dates back to the 1950s, and land, which is used for private allotments, is being offered for sale with a guide price of £300,000. A pre-application planning inquiry has been submitted to North Somerset Council to build four homes on the site.

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The church building, which dates back to 1875 and sits on a site of 0.3 acres, has been given a guide price of £150,000 upwards. No pre-application plans have been submitted for the building but the agent says it could be converted into town houses or flats or into a business such as a day nursery or crèche.

The former grade two listed lodge building, which is boarded up and has been empty for four years, is also up for sale by auction with a guide price of £90,000 upwards.

Both will be sold by auction on September 26.

Oliver Hollis, of Hollis Morgan, said: "The properties have only been advertised for a week and have generated a lot of interest."

The church and buildings were put up for sale by the United Reformed Church South Western Synod in 2010 after the 30-strong congregation said it could no longer afford the ongoing maintenance and repairs to the building. They were sold by Jones Lang Lasalle earlier this year. The church, which opened in 1887 and cost £3,344 go build, was used mainly for the weekly Sunday service and hired out for concerts four or five times a year. Worshippers now hold services at St Nicholas Church, Nore Road.