Lavendon

{{Infobox UK place

|country = England

|coordinates = {{coord|52.172|-0.663|display=inline,title}}

|static_image_name= The Church Corner in Lavendon - geograph.org.uk - 419507.jpg

|static_image_caption=

|population= 1,303

|population_ref= (2011 Census including Warrington){{NOMIS2011|id=E04012187|title=Lavendon|accessdate= 18 November 2019}}

|civil_parish= Lavendon

|official_name= Lavendon

|unitary_england= Milton Keynes City Council

| shire_district = City of Milton Keynes

|lieutenancy_england=Buckinghamshire

|region= South East England

|constituency_westminster= Milton Keynes North

|post_town= OLNEY

|postcode_district = MK46

|postcode_area= MK

|dial_code= 01234

|os_grid_reference= SP915535

| module = {{Infobox mapframe|stroke-width=1|zoom=11|width=240}}

}}

Lavendon is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.[http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/parishes/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=17026 Parishes in Milton Keynes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090608003948/http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/parishes/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=17026 |date=2009-06-08 }} - Milton Keynes Council. It is the northernmost village in the Milton Keynes UA and South East England,{{efn|Nearby Warrington is more northerly but is formally a hamlet.}} near Olney, about {{convert|8|miles}} WNW of Bedford and {{convert|9|mi}} NNE of Central Milton Keynes.

Nearby places are Warrington, and Cold Brayfield in the Milton Keynes UA, and Harrold and Carlton over the border in Bedfordshire.

History

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.{{cite book |first=V. |last=Watts |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of Place-Names |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2004 |page=363}}

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.{{cite book |first=I. J. |last=Sanders |title=English Baronies: A Study of Their Origin and Descent, 1086-1327 |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford |date=1960 |page=128}}{{cite book |first=F. |last=Stenton |title=The First Century of English Feudalism, 1066-1166 |edition=2nd |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |date=1961 |page=205n}} 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.{{cite book |first1=D. |last1=Knowles |first2=R. N. |last2=Hadcock |title=Medieval Religious Houses of England and Wales |edition=2nd |publisher=Longmans |location=London |date=1971 |pages=184, 190}} It stood at what is now Grange Farm.

The Earl of Gainsborough was patron of the parish church.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Lavendon (St Mary) |encyclopedia=A Topographical Dictionary of England |editor-first=Samuel |editor-last=Lewis |location=London |date=1848 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp33-37#h3-0015 |via=British History Online}}

The village is on the route of the 1936 Jarrow March, there is a small plaque on the churchyard wall to commemorate this.

Modern Lavendon

The parish church is dedicated to St Michael, and there is also a Baptist Church that meets at the Union Chapel in the centre of the village.

The village has a combined school for children from reception (4 years) through to year 6 (11 years). 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.

The company Tusting has a small factory on Olney Road producing a wide range of luxury leather goods which are exported worldwide.

The Lavendon Narrow Gauge Railway is situated in the village and it open to the public a few Sundays a year.

Note and references

External links

Category:Villages in Buckinghamshire

Category:Areas of Milton Keynes

Category:Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire