diff --git a/app1/grails-app/services/functionaltests/ContextLoaderService.groovy b/app1/grails-app/services/functionaltests/ContextLoaderService.groovy
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f8f00c04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app1/grails-app/services/functionaltests/ContextLoaderService.groovy
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package functionaltests
+
+import grails.util.Holders
+
+import org.springframework.context.support.GenericApplicationContext
+import org.springframework.context.support.GenericXmlApplicationContext
+import org.springframework.core.io.Resource
+
+class ContextLoaderService {
+
+    GenericApplicationContext loadContext(Resource appCtxResource) {
+        GenericApplicationContext context = new GenericXmlApplicationContext()
+        context.setParent(Holders.grailsApplication.mainContext)
+        context.load(appCtxResource)
+        context.refresh()
+        context
+    }
+}
diff --git a/app1/src/integration-test/groovy/functionaltests/ContextLoadingSpec.groovy b/app1/src/integration-test/groovy/functionaltests/ContextLoadingSpec.groovy
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3e459836
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app1/src/integration-test/groovy/functionaltests/ContextLoadingSpec.groovy
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+package functionaltests
+
+import grails.core.GrailsApplication
+import grails.gorm.transactions.Rollback
+import grails.test.mixin.integration.Integration
+import grails.util.Holders
+import groovy.util.logging.Slf4j
+
+import org.example.MyBean
+import org.springframework.context.support.GenericApplicationContext
+import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource
+import spock.lang.Specification
+
+@Integration
+@Rollback
+@Slf4j
+class ContextLoadingSpec extends Specification {
+
+    ContextLoaderService contextLoaderService
+
+    void "test managing child app context"() {
+
+        given:
+        ClassPathResource myAppCtx = new ClassPathResource("AppCtx.xml")
+
+        when:
+        GrailsApplication application = Holders.getGrailsApplication()
+
+        then:
+        application != null
+
+        when:
+        GenericApplicationContext context = contextLoaderService.loadContext(myAppCtx)
+        MyBean bean = context.getBean("myBean", MyBean)
+
+        then:
+        bean != null
+        Holders.getGrailsApplication() == application
+
+        when:
+        context.close()
+
+        then:
+        Holders.getGrailsApplication() == application
+
+    }
+}
diff --git a/app1/src/integration-test/resources/AppCtx.xml b/app1/src/integration-test/resources/AppCtx.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ab42cdc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app1/src/integration-test/resources/AppCtx.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
+    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
+
+    <bean id="myBean" class="org.example.MyBean"/>
+
+</beans>
\ No newline at end of file