Lilleshall Abbey, some distance to the east of the village, was an Augustinian house, founded in the twelfth century, the ruins of which are protected by English Heritage.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relatively shallow deposits of coal and limestone were mined, with resultant subsidence.

[citation needed] At a similar time to the mining of limestone an early example of the English canal network was dug, the Donnington Wood Canal and its Lilleshall branch which were connected by an inclined plane, reflected in the naming of a road named The Incline in Lilleshall.

The Leveson-Gower Dukes of Sutherland became one of the richest families in the United Kingdom partly as a result of this industrial development and in the late nineteenth century built a new residence, Lilleshall Hall which lies at the heart of the estate a mile from the village.

It is now the Lilleshall Hall National Sports Centre,[4] once the site of the Football Association youth academy, and now the home of British gymnastics and archery.