Lavendon is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes (borough)

The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...

 and ceremonial county

Ceremonial counties of England

The ceremonial counties are areas of England to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as counties and areas for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Lieutenancies Act 1997...

 of Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is the northernmost village in the Borough, near Olney, eight miles WNW of Bedford, eight miles NNE of Newport Pagnell

Newport Pagnell

Newport Pagnell is a town in the Borough of Milton Keynes , England. It is separated by the M1 motorway from Milton Keynes itself, though part of the same urban area...

.

Nearby places are Warrington

Warrington, Milton Keynes

Warrington is a hamlet and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes and ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England, near Olney and on either side of the A509. It formed part of the parish of Olney until 1866....

, and Cold Brayfield

Cold Brayfield

Cold Brayfield is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is about three miles east of Olney, on the Bedfordshire border. Nearby places are Lavendon and Turvey .Cold Brayfield is probably the place named as 'Bragenfelda' in a charter of 967...

 in Milton Keynes Borough, and Harrold

Harrold, Bedfordshire

Harrold is a civil parish and electoral ward in the Borough of Bedford within Bedfordshire, England, around nine miles north-west of Bedford. The village is on the north bank of the River Great Ouse, and is the site of an ancient bridge, linking the village with Carlton with Chellington on the...

 and Carlton

Carlton, Bedfordshire

Carlton is a village in the Bedford district of Bedfordshire, England, part of the Carlton with Chellington parish with the adjacent village of Chellington. The River Great Ouse runs just to the north of the village. Nearby places are Harrold, Pavenham, Turvey, Lavendon and Little Odell.Carlton...

 over the border in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

.

History

The village name is derived from a personal name and a place-name element from the Old English language

Old English language

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 (Lafan + denu), and means 'Lafa's valley'. In the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 the village was recorded as Lavendene and Lawendene.

At Castle Farm are the earthworks of a motte-and-bailey castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 created in the twelfth century by de Bidun family as the headquarters of their barony of Lavendon. The castle was last recorded in 1232.

The village was once the location of a Premonstratensian

Premonstratensian

The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines, or in Britain and Ireland as the White Canons , are a Catholic religious order of canons regular founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg...

 abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

, founded between 1155 and 1158 by John de Bidun. The abbey was suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

 in 1536. It stood at what is now Grange Farm.

The village is on the route of the 1936 Jarrow March

Jarrow March

The Jarrow March , was an October 1936 protest march against unemployment and extreme poverty suffered in North East England. The 207 marchers travelled from the town of Jarrow to the Palace of Westminster in London, a distance of almost , to lobby Parliament...

, there is a small plaque on the churchyard wall to commemorate this.

Modern Lavendon

The parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 church is dedicated to St Michael, and there is a small but active Baptist Chapel.

The village has a combined school for children from reception (4years) through to year 6 (11years). It also has a village store and Post Office, an independent garage, village hall and two public houses, the Green Man and The Horseshoe. There is also a pre-school and a nursery.