The addition of long, to distinguish the settlement from Moor Crichel, is first attested in 1208, in the form Langecrechel.

[7] The Friends restored the Grade II listed church's medieval tower and east stained glass window.

[4] Long Crichel House, the Grade II listed Georgian rectory, was bought jointly in 1945 by Edward Sackville-West, the music critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor and artist and art dealer Eardley Knollys,[4] who along with architectural historian James Lees-Milne, literary critic Raymond Mortimer and the gay activist and eye surgeon Patrick Trevor-Roper, established "one of the last great post-war salons, hosting guests including Sibyl Colefax, Anthony Asquith, Graham Sutherland, Lord Berners, Nancy Mitford, Benjamin Britten, Laurie Lee, Ben Nicolson, Cecil Day-Lewis and Graham Greene.

[9] Sackville-West died in 1965 and Knollys and his friend Mattei Radev bought another country home in Hampshire in 1967.

[8] Shawe-Taylor remained at Long Crichel House until he died there, aged 88, on 1 November 1995, following a country walk.