Originally the main residence on the estate, Wroxall Abbey dates back to the mid 12th Century when it was first established as a Benedictine Priory of nuns and remained such for nearly 400 years until its Dissolution under Henry VIII in 1536. 

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Robert Burgoyne, a King’s Commissioner, built a manor house adjacent to the monastery ruins and various generations of his family held the estate from 1544 until 1713 when it was sold to Sir Christopher Wren whose descendants lived there and are commemorated in the chapel, St Leonard’s Priory, which still stands .

Acquired by James Dugdale in 1861, the original Elizabethan manor house was demolished and the current Victorian Gothic mansion was built in its place. 

The mansion and immediate grounds were sold in 1963 to the Wroxall Abbey School for Girls until it closed in 1995. Under new ownership Wroxall Abbey now operates commercially as a hotel operator.