Stoneleigh Abbey was founded by the Cistercians in 1154, the only remaining trace of which is a 14th-century Gatehouse at the site entrance.

The house and grounds that exist today have developed since the site was acquired by Sir Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London in 1558 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries before becoming the home of the Leigh family from 1561 to 1990, who added the four story west wind between 1714 and 1726.

Stoneleigh Abbey is a key site for county veteran trees, which, as constituents of fashionable country house landscape gardens, have survived the pressures of the surrounding farmland.