The priory of St. Mary of Newstead, a house of Augustinian Canons, was founded by King Henry II of England about the year 1170,[1] as one of many penances he paid following the murder of Thomas Becket.

Despite the annual value of Newstead being clearly below the £200 assigned as the limit for the suppression of the lesser monasteries, this priory obtained the doubtful privilege of exemption, on payment to the Crown of the heavy fine of £233 6s.

The lake was dredged in the late eighteenth century and the lectern, thrown into the Abbey fishpond by the monks to save it during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, was discovered.

[citation needed] Sir John Byron of Colwick in Nottinghamshire was granted Newstead Abbey by Henry VIII of England on 26 May 1540 and started its conversion into a country house.

Early in the 18th century, the 4th Lord Byron landscaped the gardens extensively, and amassed a hugely admired collection of artistic masterpieces.

As a young man, William lavished money on the estate, building picturesque Gothic follies and staging glamorous mock navy battles on the lake.

[4] Continuing to take out loans and pursue his pleasures of horse-racing, gambling, and going to the theatre, he found himself financially reliant on a scheme of marrying off his only surviving son and heir to a wealthy heiress.

Though late 18th-century gossip attested that he ruined the estate, felled trees, and killed deer while hellbent on revenge, this is not the case – he simply had no money to pay his debts, and stripped the Abbey and estate of its artistic treasures, furniture, and even its trees, to quickly raise cash.

[5] Though he made thousands of pounds it was not enough to pay back the loans he had been taking out since his thirties, and there was no hope of restoring the Abbey to its former glory.

[6] Later, 19th-century myths attest that on his death, the great numbers of crickets he kept at Newstead left the estate in swarms.

His view of the decayed Newstead became one of the romantic ruin, a metaphor for his family's fall: Thro' thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle; Thou, the hall of my fathers, art gone to decay.The estate was leased to the 23-year-old Henry Edward Yelverton, 19th Baron Grey de Ruthyn, from January 1803.

In 1808, Lord Grey left at the end of his lease and Byron returned to live at Newstead and began extensive and expensive renovations.

He was determined to stay at Newstead—"Newstead and I stand or fall together"—and he hoped to raise a mortgage on the property, but his advisor John Hanson urged a sale.

People including David Livingstone, Abdullah Susi, James Chuma and Jacob Wainwright all visited the Abbey at different times during the period Webb lived there.

Fraser sold Newstead to local philanthropist Sir Julien Cahn, who presented it to Nottingham Corporation in 1931.

Owned by Nottingham City Council, the Abbey is on the at risk register due to water ingress at the roofs and around the tower.

[10] As of January 2025, the council is seeking a £250,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for remedial works expected to last until 2028.