The Village
The village name is derived from a personal name and a place-name element from the Old English language (Lafan + denu), and means 'Lafa's valley'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Lavendene and Lawendene.
At Castle Farm are the earthworks of a motte-and-bailey castle 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 abbey, founded between 1155 and 1158 by John de Bidun. The abbey was suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536. It stood at what is now Grange Farm.
The village is on the route of the 1936 Jarrow March, there is a small plaque on the churchyard wall to commemorate this.
The Church
The dedication of the church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN was changed to ST MICHAEL in 1923.
It is believed that the reason for this was due to there being another St Mary's in the parish at Cold Brayfield.
The church consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle, south aisle, north and south porches, and west tower; it is built of rubble, the roofs of the nave and aisles being covered with lead and that of the chancel with tiles.
The nave and tower and the western part of the chancel date from the early 11th century. The church appears to have been left unaltered till early in the 13th century, when the chancel was rebuilt and both aisles were added. No further structural alterations were made until late in the 15th century, when a clearstory was added to the nave, north and south porches were built, several windows were inserted in the aisles, which, with the nave, were reroofed and provided with embattled parapets, and an additional stage was added to the tower. The whole fabric was restored in 1859.
The tower contains a ring of five bells, of which the first three and the tenor are by Alexander Rigby of Stamford, 1689, and the fourth is by R. Taylor & Sons, 1828; all have been rehung in the old framework, which is inscribed 'IS. RB. CH. WD. 1690.'
Full details of the architecture of the church are available at
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp379-387#h3-0004
Another description by a local resident is available at St Michael church
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