Originally a farming village, Lenton Abbey took its name from the main farm, itself named in reference to nearby
Lenton Priory. In 1831, Lord Middleton of
Wollaton Hall acquired the estate and leased it to a successful Nottingham lace merchant, Isaac Fisher. Later the estate was sold to the industrialists and mine owning family Readett-Bayley. Sir Henry Dennis Readett-Bayley was a war hero who, with financial support from other mine owners, founded the Dennis Bayley Fund to transport wounded soldiers to safety. In 1925, the land was sold to the council for redevelopment as a large housing estate. A prominent former structure was the Essoldo cinema, and later a snooker hall designed in an Art Deco style by
Alfred J. Thraves, a prominent local cinema architect. It had been demolished by 1994 and is now the site of an office block known as 'Priory Court.' ==Demographics==