The park contains the ruins of the former village of Abington, the site of a medieval manor house with a mill attached, mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086.

[2] The village was enclosed and depopulated when the manor was enlarged and parklands created by the Thursby family in the late 17th century.

Her second marriage was to Sir John Bernard or Barnard, the MP for Huntingdon from 1660, who successively enlarged the house in the 1660s.

[9] It was converted into a private lunatic asylum, called Abington Abbey Retreat,[10] in 1845.

[9] The asylum was closed in 1892, when the Manor House and grounds were donated to Northampton Council.