Description: The site had initially made up the fields of the home farm of Lenton Priory, but had become Crown property following the Priory's dissolution in 1538. The estate then passed into the hands of a succession of absentee landlords who rented out the fields to local farmers living elsewhere in Lenton. The whole area remained uninhabited at least until the 1730s when a farmhouse was built on the site of the present 'Lenton Abbey' house. Lenton Abbey House was formerly the property of Lord Middleton but was sold c 1860 to a Mr Thomas Bayley along with a portion of Lord Middleton's Beeston estate. Bayley was born in 1813 and was a leather manufacturer at Lenton, Giltbrook and Newark. He was also a founder of Digby Colliery. On his death in 1874 he left it to his only daughter. It is now part of the University of Nottingham.