Awful smell coming from traps over by church (6)
I believe the answer is:
stench
'awful smell' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'traps over by church' is the wordplay.
'traps' becomes 'nets' (net is a kind of trap).
'over' is a reversal indicator.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'nets' reversed gives 'sten'.
'sten'+'ch'='STENCH'
'coming from' is the link.
(Other definitions for stench that I've seen before include "Strong offensive smell" , "Foul odour" , "Evidence of corruption" , "A really vile smell" , "Stink" .)