Lower Sapey
Worcestershire

The old church of St Bartholomew at Lower Sapey in the 19th century

Lower Sapey or Sapey Pitchard in Worcestershire is divided from Upper Sapey in Herefordshire by the Sapey Brook.  Some time before the later 8^th century the church of Worcester acquired land at Sapey.  In 781 King Offa of Mercia exchanged land at Iccomb for land at Sapey with the church at Worcester.  It was later returned to Worcester church because we know that Bishop Brihteah to his brother-in-law.

In the mid 11^th century Sapey was held by Richard Scrope, a Norman lord who had come to England in the service of Edward the Confessor.  Scrope (the name appears to be an Anglo-Scandinavian nickname) had built one of the first two Norman castles in England at  the place now known as Richard’s Castle in north Herefordshire – the other was at Ewyas Harold in south-west Herefordshire. 

At Domesday Richard Scrope’s son Osbern held his late father’s lands – including Sapey.  There were 3 hides which paid tax and there were only 9 cattle in lordship.

The population included a priest, 3 villeins and 4 bordars, and there was a mill which paid 6 packloads of corn.

There seems to have been a church at Sapey in the mid 11^th century because Domesday says that there was a priest there.  No trace of this church survives but the old church at Sapey was built in the early 12^th century.  This church was replaced by a new gothic church in 1877.  Both churches are dedicated to St Bartholomew.