Boudicca, queen of the Iceni tribe, is thought by some to have been buried somewhere at Polesworth following the defeat of her army by the Romans in battle near Manuessendum (modern day Mancetter) in A.D. 60. One theory suggests that, after taking poison, her body was placed on a raft and set adrift on the River Anker, eventually coming to rest in Polesworth, where her body is thought to haven been buried.
St. Editha, said to have been the first Abbess of the Saxon Abbey at Polesworth, was the daughter, or granddaughter, of Egbert, King of Wessex, generally thought to have founded the Abbey in A.D. 829. The subsequent Norman Benedictine Abbey was dedicated to St. Editha.
Sir Robert de Marmion, the first Norman Lord of Tamworth, was granted ownership of Polesworth and its Saxon Abbey by William the Conqueror. De Marmion probably built the new Benedictine Abbey, which was later gifted to the nuns of Polesworth by one of his descendants.