Lower Sapey / Nether Pychard / Nether Sape / Sapey Pitchard / Sapey-Pritchard / Sapi / Sapie / Saple / Sapy Parva / Sapy Pychard / Sapye / Sapypritchard / Sapys Pychard / Sipi

There is an entry for [Lower] Sapey [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SO6960/lower-sapey/] [accessed 27 October 2014], and it reports a priest in it; it does not mention a church but there probably was one here. Miller (1890) mentions the Church of St. Bartholomew, and the parish register that "dates from 1600", but not a font in it. The Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "in 1286 a payment of 6s. 8d. from the chapel of Lower Sapey was assigned to the vicar. [...] It is returned, however, as a church in 1291, [...] and though it still paid the pension of 6s. 8d. to the church of Clifton in 1535, [...] and is called a chapelry of Clifton by Nash in 1781, [...] it seems to have had all parochial rights except that of burial [...] The old church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW [...] chancel and nave date from the early years of the 12th century, but the south doorway seems to have been inserted about 1150 [...] At the west end of the nave is the circular shaft of the original font. The bowl, which is now in the new church, is of a plain cup shape and probably dates from the 12th century." There are two separate entries for the old and new churches in English Heritage; the entry for the old church [Listing NGR: SO6993060207] (1959) reports: "remnants of circular font base (font removed to Church of St Bartholomew, Harpley, Lower Sapey". The English Heritage entry for the new church [Listing NGR: SO6869561238] (1984) reports the rest of the font: "font has plain cup shaped medieval bowl (from the Old Church of St Bartholomew [...] on a C19 base". The entry for Harpley St. Bartholomew's church in Brooks & Pevsner (2007) reads: "Font. Tub-shaped bowl, from Lower Sapey, perhaps C13." [NB: the new Church of St. Bartholomew appears now [2007] under the name of Harpley Village, Lower Sapey]. The CRSBI (2014) entry for the old church notes: "The plain font is now in the new church, built in 1877 and one mile away [...] Now installed in the new church. Only the bowl survives, supported on a modern stem and plinth. Cup-like in shape, and roughly hewn from a single block; no lead lining. Date uncertain."