Lillingstone Dayrell is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Lillingstone Dayrell with Luffield Abbey, in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England. It is about three and a half miles north of

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of ...

, eight miles west of

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

and five miles south of

Towcester Towcester ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative centre of the South Northamptonshire district. Towcester is on ...

. The village name 'Lillingstone' is

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to Ge ...

in origin, and means 'Lytel's boundary stone', referring to the proximity of both places to the border with

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, both settlements were recorded jointly as ''Lillingestan'' though already at that time there were two manors owned respectively by the Dayrell and Lovell families. The suffix 'Dayrell' (as 'Dayerell') was first recorded in the fourteenth century. The Dayrell family were Lords of the Manor from the fourteenth century until the 1880s.

Notable buildings

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

church of Lillingstone Dayrell is dedicated to

St Nicholas of Myra Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

. Lillingstone House is the ancient seat of the Dayrell family. In 1882, the banker Abraham John Robarts, of Robarts, Lubbock & Co., then the tenant of Lillingstone House, built Tile House in the village for himself, designed by

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery (London), National Portrait Gallery. He was Arch ...

. This is described by

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

as “Neo-Elizabethan, big and forbidding with groups of huge chimneys.”

Notable people

Gerald Robarts Gerald Robarts (15 April 1878 – 27 December 1961) was a British Army officer, banker, and leading squash rackets player. He was a director of Coutts & Co. until 1931. Early life Robarts was born in Buckinghamshire on 15 April 1878. He was t ...

(1878–1961), banker, soldier, and notable squash player, lived at Lillingstone Dayrell House.

Civil parish

In 1961 the parish had a population of 121. On 1 April 2001 the parish was abolished and merged with Luffield Abbey to form "Lillingstone Dayrell with Luffield Abbey".

References

External links

The deserted medieval village and the surviving church

North Buckingham Parish
Villages in Buckinghamshire Former civil parishes in Buckinghamshire Lillingstone Dayrell {{Buckinghamshire-geo-stub

Notable buildings

Notable people

Civil parish

References

Further reading

External links