Upper Poppleton is a village immediately NW of York. The present church is of 1891, by C. Hodgson Fowler. This has a nave and chancel in one with an extension on the north like half an aisle. For the S entrance the architect reused part of a C12^th S doorway with waterleaf capitals. There is also an undecorated font present.

According to VCH 1912, 213, DB says ‘St. Peter (ie York Minster) had it for 1 manor. Now, under Archbishop Thomas, 2 villeins are there with 1½ plough and 1 prebendary.’ According to Bulmer (1890), the land was given by Osbert De Arches to the Abbot of St Mary's in York.

Buttery 1982, 38, 39, gives a photograph of the two cell church which was there before demolition in 1890.

This is the building which appears in Hodgson Fowler’s Faculty papers (Fac.1889/90) in the Borthwick Institute. These contain a series of drawings:

HF14.14/1 is a plan showing walls 3ft thick in the nave, not so thick in the chancel. Approximate exterior measurements: nave, 11.5m x 7.5m ; overall with chancel, 17m.

HF.14/2. A pencil drawing, this shows elevation of exterior of a very simple two-cell church with Perp.? windows inserted in the chancel. The blocked S doorway has squat waterleaf capitals indicated. There is a smaller W doorway. The W wall has a 12^th c. window remaining, and also a bell turret.

HF.14/3 has faint pencil sketches, sections of the old church. “Looking East” shows off-centre chancel arch, a flattened round arch. No indication of any capitals or sculpture on it.

The doorway includes reused parts of what was probably the original S doorway – compare Faculty papers, sketch on HF.14/2, south elevation.

The church may have been built in two phases, first the basic two-cell building, then later the ornamented doorway. Something similar happened at Askham Bryan, where a complex patterned doorway was combined with a simple rectangular church.

The font may or may not be Romanesque; this type of shape seems to follow in the thirteenth century.