St. Michael & All Angels, Upper Sapey, WR6 6TL

We know that there was a settlement of some sort in the Upper Sapey area because an iron age fortlet has been found at Yearston Court (about three quarters of mile east of the church); two walls remained certainly up to the early part of the 20th Century. The ditch probably enclosed a roughly oval site which, coupled with the Sapey Brook, would have made a settlement viable. Research by Jennifer Weale of the Bromyard & District Local History Society on Tedstone Delamere indicates that shortly after the Romans invaded in 43 AD a marching fort was established in Upper Sapey and they may have used this site.

However the land at the time of the Norman Conquest seems to have been uncultivated and no village is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Its name derives from the landowners who were presumably Normans and would have been granted title to the land by the king. So this is a solid Norman church, built in the reign of Henry 1st in the last quarter of the 11th century and which still retains a number of 12th century details.

In a History of Herefordshire written in 1812, John Duncombe refers to the village as having been originally known as ‘Sapey Superior’ (to distinguish it from similar local names such as Little Sapey, now Lower Sapey). The first record of the family from which the settlement takes its name is from 1255 when Hugh de Sapey is known to be paying his taxes to the King, so we can assume that the family built the church. The land passed through several generations of the Sapey family into the medieval period.

Credit: Brenda Allan

The church dedicated to St Michael and All Angels was extensively repaired/restored in 2016, new and effective heating installed, and a meeting room – “Olly’s Friendship Room” – created at the west end of the church, with toilet and limited kitchen facilities.

Mr Mark Maddock

Tel: 01886 853317

Mr David Roberts

Tel: 01886 853665

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