Apley church, dedicated to St Andrew, is a small brick building erected in 1871 at a cost of £284. It was built to conduct burial services within the graveyard of the former and by then non-existing medieval Church of St Andrew's, which before 1816 had decayed and been reduced to its foundations. In the 19th century the churchyard also served the parish of Stainfield. Apley is recorded in White's Directory as a village and parish with a population of 231, and a land area of 1,658 acres (6.7 km2), 300 acres (1.2 km2) of which was woodland, and included the hamlets of Kingthorpe and Hop Lane. Apley professions and trades listed in 1872 included a parish clerk, a boot & shoemaker, six farmers, two of whom were at Kingthorpe, and two carriers, one of whom was a shopkeeper.[1][2]
