The first known reference to a settlement at Roke in the ‘Feet of Fines’ papers of Southampton was recorded in 1256.

In 1545, during the reign of Henry VIII, Roke Manor was mentioned in a lay subsidiary roll as having six taxpayers in residence.

By 1650 the first mention was made of a house on the Roke site. This was the first and last mention for many years. Certainly it was not featured on a map created in 1680. It is believed that the house was destroyed during the civil war and rebuilt at the end of the 17th century. The estate was bought by the Ansell family – a Birmingham-based brewery firm – in 1935. Some of the Ansell racing cars were maintained at Roke until the 1950’s.

In April 1944, Army Air Force Station 503, run by the American Red Cross, was expanded to include Roke Manor. Before this, Roke Manor was used by the USAAF as a clearing house and training site for newly arrived personnel or for personnel awaiting reassignment. Some accounts of this period are mentioned in the book "32 Co Pilots", by Charles Bastien.

In 1956 the house and 22 acres of the estate were bought for £13,000 by the Plessey Company and named Plessey Research Roke Manor Limited. The laboratories opened in June, staffed initially by a group of 28 engineers and scientists. The majority of work carried out was performed by the Radio Research group into Electronic Warfare, which was so highly regarded that it did not take long for the company to establish itself as a leader in its field.

In 1983, following the merger with the Electronic Systems Research (ESR) centre at Southleigh Park, staff transferred to Roke, bringing new expertise in optics and sensors. The successful integration of the Southleigh business led to the formation of Roke Manor Research Ltd, an independent research business within Plessey.

Roke, working for the DTI in 1985, evaluated a number of candidate systems for what finally became the GSM telecommunications standard which is in global use today. Since then, Roke has played a pivotal role in the development of cellular communications systems, including GPRS and UMTS.

In 1990 the site was passed to GEC-Siemens in a joint take-over. Then, a year later, GEC sold its 50% shareholding in Roke Manor Research to Siemens Plessey Electronic Systems and became wholly owned by Siemens AG.