Large pile of gold church had to begin with (7)
I believe the answer is:
chateau
'large pile' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'gold church had to begin with' is the wordplay.
'gold' becomes 'Au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold).
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'had' becomes 'ate' ('have' can mean 'eat').
'to begin with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ch'+'ate'='chate'
'au' put after 'chate' is 'CHATEAU'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chateau that I've seen before include "A grand French Mansion" , "country house in Bordeaux?" , "French palace" , "Impressive house in France" , "French wine producer" .)