The manor, with that of Tattershall, was among the several estates given by the conqueror to Eudo, one of his Norman followers. His son Hugh fitz Eudo, called the Breton, founded a Cistertian Abbey here in 1139, and endowed it with his possessions in this place. Afterwards the monks, considering the situation unhealthy, petitioned Robert, the son of the founder, to allow them to remove the abbey to some other place; but though they obtained permission, yet it does not appear that the affair was proceeded in any further. The abbey had subsequently many benefactors, and acquired very extensive possessions. At the dissolution of religious houses, the Kirkstead estate was given by Henry the eighth, to Charles Duke of Suffolk; and on the division of his estates after the death of his two sons, who survived him but a short time, it reverted to the king as one of the heirs general of the family, and was subsequently given to Lord Clinton and Saye, afterwards Earl of Lincoln. This estate descended to Mr. Daniel Disney, in right of his wife Catherine, the youngest daughter of Henry Fynes Clinton, Esquire, and grand-daughter of the second Earl of Lincoln. In the year 1792 it was sold by Mr. Disney Fytch, grandson of Mr. Daniel Disney, to the present possessor, Richard Ellison, Esquire, of Sudbroke Holme, near Lincoln. Of the Abbey a small ruin only remains: but from a plate of “The Ichnography of the Monastery of Kirsted Linc.” in Stukeley’s Itinerarium Curiosum, the buildings appear to have been extensive. South of the ruin of the Abbey is the Chapel, a very curious building, which according to tradition was built previous to the monastery. It is of early English architecture, having lancet windows at the sides and east end, and an ox-eye window over the entrance at the west end. The roof is beautifully groined, the ribs springing from corbel tables; and against the south wall on the inside, is a rude figure in stone of a knight templar, with the front part of his helmet in the shape of a cross. For many years the roof of this building was covered with thatch, but in 1790 it was removed and a covering of tiles substituted. At that time also the bell, which had previously hung in a tree, was placed over the west end of the building.