The Lillingstone aspect of the village name derives from an Old English personal name and the words -ingas and tun giving ‘stone of Lytel's people’. The stone possibly marked the county boundary. At the time of the Domesday Survey it was recorded as Lelinchestane. The Lovell part of the name comes from the Baronial family who took possession of the land in 1431.

The village remained the possession of the manor until 1923 when the estate was broken up with some of the tenant farmers buying their farms and villagers buying their homes. At one time the making of bobbin lace was very important to the village. This is evidenced by the school records from the early 1900s which show lace making featuring largely on the girls’ curriculum.

Briary Lodge

It is said that in the early 1930s a ghost appeared at the house of two old ladies up at Briary (we assume this to be either Briary Lodge or Briary Wood Farm which lie just over one and a half kilometre to the northeast of the village). People were reported to have come from as far away as Northampton to see the ghost who was said to have been seen riding a white horse. There was even a photograph as evidence. Unfortunately the photograph turned out to be a fake.

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