Novioialos was a Gaulish site established next to a pagan fountain, and was Christianized under the patronage of Saint-Vivien.
In the eleventh century, the area and the Church belonged to the Viscounts of Rochechouart that created the benedictine Abbaye Saint-Pierre d'Uzerche, the forest was then cleared by the monks of the Priory of Sainte Marie-Madeleine de I'Espinassouze.
All that remains is the apse of the Church, a wall of the chapel of I' Espinassouze and the foundations of the mill.
The Châtellenie of Nieuil passed successively through the noble families Raja, Jaubert, Green Saint, - Marsault – (builders of the first castle) and Perry Fief of the barony of Champagne Mouton, it remained an enclave of Poitou until the French Revolution.
In the sixteenth century a discovery of iron ore in the forest led to the creation of a forge. The owner, Louis Lavergne Champlaurier was guillotined in 1794, with his wife Victoire.
Nieuil had a railway station on the line from Ruffec to Roumazières-Loubert, which was closed in 1954. The nearest stations are in Roumazières-Loubert and Chasseneuil-sur-Bonnieure, on the line from Angoulême to Limoges.
