It has been suggested that the origins of the site lay in the monastic founding of Kirkstall Abbey, although no such documented evidence can be found for such a link. Indeed the first record of industrial activity was through a lease agreement in 1618 whilst the Kirkstall Abbey was thought to have been disbanded in 1539. At that time the site was located in open countryside, some way west of the developed area of Leeds.

The earliest part of the forge complex is thought to have been located close to the Abbey Mill Race thereby utilising an existing watercourse for power. Expansion and redevelopment, was the key for the next 100 years or so until the then owners sold the lease for the developing complex to a family partnership, the Beecrofts and Butlers. It was under this partnership that the site continued to develop apace for the next 300 years or so with descendents of the family finally buying the site in 1893. Throughout the operation of the site the production of axles survived as one of the few continuous processes undertaken on-site with a shift away from the production of cart and railway axles towards axles for commercial motor vehicles. Such was the success of the Kirkstall Forge axle that in the post-war period up to the 1930's it was thought that almost every lorry and bus made in England had a Kirkstall back axle casing.