The Lillingstones, Lovell and Dayrell, are villages in the NW of the county. Lillingstone Lovell was originally a detached part of Oxfordshire, and was transferred to Buckinghamshire in 1844. It is a small village 4 miles N of Buckingham, set in rolling, wooded pasture land. It consists of a few dwellings and farm buildings on a minor road that runs E off the A413 Buckingham to Towcester road, and the church is at the centre of this cluster with a large 18thc stone-built parsonage immediately to the W.

The church consists of an aisled and clerestoried nave with a S porch, a W tower and a chancel. The S doorway, now reset in the aisle, dates from the 1170s and its porch dates from 1639. The 3-bay nave arcades are 14thc, and do not extend the full length of the nave. At their E ends are stretches of plain walling pierced by windows, and behind these are N and S chapels. The N chapel is higher and slightly wider than the aisle and now houses the organ; the aisle being blocked off to prevent access to it from the W. The S chapel is a simple extension of the aisle and remains a chapel. The chancel arch and chancel were rebuilt in the 14thc, but a 12thc blocked priest’s doorway remains on the S side. The chancel is extremely short, the E end having been removed in 1777 and the reticulated E window reset in the new E wall. It is slightly wider than the nave. The tower is unbuttressed and is likely to have been begun at the same time as the S doorway and completed early in the 13thc. Its bell-openings were replaced in the 14thc, and it now has a modern saddleback roof. Construction is of coursed rubble. The church was restored in 1891-91 and the clerestory was added then. Romanesque features recorded here are the S nave and chancel doorways.

Lillingstone Lovell was recorded under Oxfordshire in the Domesday Survey, and two estates were described. Benzelin held 2½ hides with woodland 10 furlongs by 5. His manor was held by Azur before 1066. In addition, Richard Engaine had an identical holding of 2½ hides with woodland 10 furlongs by 5.

According to the Whittlewood Project, in 1279 Benzelin’s holding was in the possession of Payn de Chaceporc, whose tenant there was Margaret Dansey. During the 14th century this estate was divided into two separate manors, Overend and Netherend. The Domesday holding of Richard Engaine became divided towards the end of the 12th century. In 1279 one half was held by James Barber of the king, and the other half was held by John de Olney of William de Stapleton.

The parish is now in the Buckingham North benefice, i.e. Akeley, Leckhampstead, Lillingstone Dayrell, Lillingstone Lovell and Maids Moreton.

The flat leaf and waterleaf capitals are typical of the 1170s and '80s, while the complexity of the mouldings of the nave doorway suggests a date towards the end of this period.