Sapcote Castle

An early Bronze Age occupation site has been discovered here. The Roman occupation of the site, in the hinterland of the major Roman centre at Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum), was associated with the Fosse Way which passed close by, not far from its crossing with the Watling Street. It was centred upon a Roman villa with mosaic pavements and bath house, occupied continuously during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Related sites in the district were at Mancetter, Barwell and Hinckley. The continuous occupation of the existing settlement had its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period, and lay within that province of the Middle Angles, centred in Leicestershire, the rule of which was granted by Penda…

The oldest surviving building in the village is the Church of England parish church of All Saints, a building in English Decorated and Perpendicular architectural styles of the 13th to 15th centuries. The Norman font is all that remains of an earlier church: William Bassett appears as the patron of rector Thomas in the last decades of the 12th century. A chantry was established by Ralph de Basset in 1376 and its chapel forms the present north aisle. At one time the church windows had the Basset coat of arms and devices in glass, but those of the chancel window were removed in 1788, and only a fragment now remains. At this time a stone coffin, probably of one of the Bassetts, was opened and…