England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Upper Sapey St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Upper Sapey is the most northeasterly in the county of Herefordshire and forms an extensive stretch of the border with neighbouring Worcestershire. Upper Sapey is located roughly 6 miles north of the small market town of Bromyard ad sits on the B4203 which links Bromyard through to Abberley in Worcestershire. Upper Sapey has a small presence on the B road but most properties lie along a narrow lane heading northwestwards to the church site. Like most small rural parishes in Herefordshire Upper Sapey would have largely earned its income from pastoral farming, the traditional beef cattle being the predominant product. Upper Sapey is drained southeastwards by one of a number of small brooks that come together as Sapey Brook before meeting the nearby Teme at Knightwick, the Teme heads east to meet the Severn to the south of Worcester and the latter then meets the Bristol Channel after a long southern journey. Upper Sapey is sited at the relatively high position of 160 metres above the sea with land rising even higher to the north, reaching 245 metres on nearby Broad Heath. Herefordshire has something of a mixture of parish sizes most are relatively small but Upper Sapey was one of the larger, covering almost 2,200 acres it would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. Upper Sapey is not, however, specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Michael's church sits at the end of the narrow lane, Church Lane, tucked away behind a modern development of homes and accessed through Church Close. The core of the church, both nave and chancel, is Norman Romanesque and 12th century in origin, shown well in the northern window of the chancel and the blocked doorway of the nave. The church then went through the usual hotch-potch of minor changes reflected largely in the mixture of windows for the building. A 13th century lancet of the early English Gothic to the nave sits alongside 14th century Decorated style replacements for Norman originals. The major changes to the church since its construction came with the Victorian restoration, an elaborate affair of the late 1850s which saw the short western tower and timber southern porch added to the basic structure as well as replacing the chancel arch and many more windows, most of their replacement took the later Decorated style. Church Close leads westward off Church Lane and after passing through the modern housing a short dead-end section leads to a small parking area. The square churchyard with church almost centrally within it has few obstructions beyond ascattering of trees around the western end.