It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086-7 as Heltone, in Pirehill Hundred, when it was held by Robert of Stafford. Henry de Aldithley endowed the Cistercian Abbey of St. Mary at Hulton, near the site of Heleigh Castle in 1223, donating a large amount of land, some of which was an inheritance from his mother and some of which was purchased.