The village was controlled by the Cluniac priory of nearby Newton Longville on behalf of the priory of Saint Faith in Longueville in northern France. The parish church of St. James the Apostle was built in Akeley in 1154. It was rebuilt to designs by the Gothic Revival architect John Tarring in 1854 and restored in 1901. By the mid 20th century St. James' had fallen into disrepair and in 1982 it was demolished. Akeley presently does not have its own parish church; it is part of the North Buckingham ecclesiastical parish.