The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Lafa's valley'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Lavendene.
The manor in the village was an ancient castle that at the time of the Domesday survey belonged to the de Bedun family. Although the castle is no longer there (it was last recorded in 1232), the moat and groundworks remain in the grounds of the house known as Castle Manor.
The village was once the location of a Premonstratensian abbey, founded in the reign of King Henry II by the de Bedun family. The abbey was disbanded in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1547, and shortly thereafter the building was dismantled. The abbey was located at what is now Grange Farm.
The parish church is dedicated to St Michael.