Christ Church was built as a chapel of ease, to save the people of Theale, Panborough and Bagley the long walk into the Parish Church in Wedmore.

The money to build the chapel was raised by public subscription and the land given by two local men - Thomas Knyften Esq. and Mr. Batt. Richard Carver of Taunton, the Diocesan Architect designed the building and the foundation stone was laid on a cold and bleak day in January 1826 by the Vicar of Wedmore, Reverend Joseph Richards.

Christ Church was opened for public worship in January 1828 and the dedication service was conducted by Bishop Law, the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Bishop Ryder, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, formerly of Gloucester, preached the sermon. 

The first incumbent was Reverend William White, who had been born in the parish. The contractor who built the chapel unfortunately went bankrupt, and could not pay his work men. Reverend White, much distressed, decided to raise funds by publishing some of his sermons. He soon had enough to pay all the work men!!

William White was an evangelical preacher who discouraged his flock from indilging in the "dangerous evils" of drinking, gambling and single stick fighting. He successfully stopped the annual revel which had originally been a religious festival but by the 1820's had become a day of excessive drinking, and men gambled a lot of money on the single stick fights. In his first sermon William White warned husbands not to "squander in drunkenss and folly , the money you have so hardly earned" but to "feed your wives and children".

Within two years the revel and local single stick fights had stopped, the mebership of Christ Church grew and the Sunday School was well attended by over 80 Children!

Hazel Hudson