The estate was developed in the late 18th century by Michael Frederick Trench, a politician, landowner and architect.

In the early 20th century, Heywood was owned by Sir Hutcheson Poë who commissioned Edwin Lutyens to develop the gardens immediately surrounding the house.

Michael Frederick Trench built Heywood House and developed the surrounding estate in conjunction with James Gandon.

[3] Christopher Hussey, in his official biography The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens, records that the Heywood scheme, ‘though architecturally superb, proved very much more costly than the client had contemplated".

[a][5] Following Poë's death in 1934 the house was left empty until it was purchased in 1941 by the Salesian Brothers for the establishment of a seminary.