At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 it was recorded (as "Leie") as having been held before the Norman Conquest by Northmann of Mereworth of Abingdon Abbey and to have passed under the same overall ownership to the minor feudal lord William the Chamberlain.

According to the antiquary John Leland, the Bessels family had been settled at Besil's Leigh in Berkshire since the reign of Edward I,[5] but originated in Provence in France and were "men of activitye in feates of arms as it appearith in monuments at Legh; how he faught in listes with a straunge knyghte that challengyd hym, at the whitche deade the kynge and quene at that time of England were present.

"[5] In January 1527, Edward Fettiplace, Treasurer to the Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, wrote to Thomas Cromwell, upbraiding him with breaking his word as to granting him the site of the dissolved Poughley Priory, on the faith of which he had given Cromwell 40 shillings at the time of its dissolution, but the lease had been granted to another man.

From this letter it is evident that Cromwell had been recently visiting the dismantled priory, as Fettiplace records a visit to Poughley, on "the Thursday after our departing," of one John Edden who came with a cart to carry off such stuff as was appointed to go to Wolsey's College at Oxford; the bedding was in Fettiplace's chamber, which was locked, but Edden "with great oaths and with levers brak up the doors."

The estate of Besils Leigh was sold, early in the 17th century, by the Fettiplace family to William Lenthall (1591–1662), Speaker of the House of Commons.

"The old manor house, surrounding a quadrangular court, and containing a place of concealment, access to which was obtained in a most difficult and unusual manner, was a magnificent structure where it is said, Cromwell and other leading men of his day were frequently entertained".

10 Operational Training Unit RAF at Abingdon, was on circuits and landings practice when its pilot lost control while changing from flare path to instruments.

The aircraft crashed onto what was then a military firing range at Great Park Farm, Besselsleigh, and almost immediately burst into flames.

The pilot, Sgt Douglas C Adamson and the navigator Flying Officer Allan G Lillico are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission section of Botley Cemetery, on the outskirts of Oxford.

On hearing cries from the wireless operator, who was trapped in the blazing wreckage, Sergeant Blunt attempted to reach him, approaching the aircraft from the side furthest from the most intense part of the fire and the fuel tanks.