Tabley House was designed by John Carr of York for Sir Peter Byrne Leicester, Bt., and completed in 1769. His son, Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bt., later 1st Lord de Tabley, was the first great patron and collector of British paintings. He assembled a splendid collection at Tabley and in his London house during the first decade of the 19th Century, ultimately with the intention of establishing a National Gallery of British Art.

JMW Turner, Henry Thompson and James Ward were among the many painters who stayed at Tabley. Today, important works by them can be seen in the rooms for which they were created, together with fine paintings by Dobson, Lely, Reynolds, Cotes, Northcote, Callcott, Fuseli, Lawrence, Opie, Martin and others.