There are local shops, a primary school, and recreational facilities, such as a village hall and playing fields, in the area.

The village is known for its friendly community and good transport links to nearby towns and cities, making it a popular choice for families and commuters.

The village sits atop the Chester Formation, the bedrock of which was formed around 247.1 million years ago during the Olenekian age of the Triassic period.

In the newer parts of the village to the east, River Terrace Deposits are found dating to the present Quaternary period, composed primarily of sand and gravel.

The village is bounded to the north and west by the Hemingbrough Glaciolacustrine Formation of the Devensian Stage, deposits of which can be found within the parish of Barnby Dun at Thorpe Marsh.

[8] Evidence of farming upwards of 2,000 years ago has been discovered in the north of Barnby Dun near Ling House, where a brickwork pattern field system[9] was identified.

These were Anglo-Saxon men named Ulfkil, Ketilbert and Oswulf, the first of whom was lord of the manor and held two taxed bovates.

[14] In the Domesday Book, Barnby Dun is referred to as "Barnebi", highlighting the village's name as of Norse origin when part of the Danelaw.

The most prominent explanation for its etymology pertains to a "village of the children",[15] most likely referring to a settlement held jointly by multiple heirs.

[14] On 27 October 1452 occurred the rape and abduction of Joan Beaumont in the village of Thorpe in Balne, which lies in the parish of Barnby Dun.

Joan, the widow of Sir Henry Beaumont (1411–1447),[27] was abducted at high mass from the 12th-century chapel beside the manor house by a group of some forty men led by Edward Lancaster of Skipton – who raped, threatened and forcefully married her – and including John Paslewe [Pashley],[28] a resident of Barnby Dun proper.

[29] A petition was made to parliament in 1453 by Joan's son Henry and contracted husband Charles Nowell, Esq.

which resulted in Lancaster's imprisonment and the reformation of marriage annulment laws to reduce the vulnerability of widowed women.

[44] Approach boldly, reader, whosoe’er thou art, if an honest man and one who follows the King, but if less than that depart, lest unknowingly, and by chance, thou shouldst press with thy heel these pious ashes, for Roger Portington’s bones lying beneath can ill bear a rebel’s foot.

Thus, at the outbreak of the English Civil War in the 1640s, Portington enlisted as a Lieutenant-Colonel and fought for his monarch but was taken prisoner for 16 years in Hull,[46] his commitment being remembered after his liberation in 1660 on a 17th-century memorial which remains to the present day in Barnby Dun's church.

[47][14][43] Seemingly as a result of his service to the royalist cause, by 1673 Portington – now in his seventh decade – was solely referred to as the lord of the manor of Barnby Dun.

[54][55] On 10 July 1798, a 29-year-old James Bruce, fifth son of the 5th Earl of Elgin and former Member of Parliament for Marlborough, was drowned in the River Don while attempting to cross at Barnby Dun on horseback.

In 1860, prominent landowner George Frederick Milnthorp – who also held part of the manor alongside Richard Heptonstall and one Mr. Ross in 1881[43] – built the first of three malt kilns in the village, located near to the boundary with Kirk Sandall.

[69] In 1909, a pipe organ was installed in the church by Norman & Beard,[14] which was given by George Frederick Milnthorp and Andrew Carnegie of Skibo Castle.

[2] Sandhurst was built on Station Road by Samuel Porter in 1910[71] alongside significant sand and gravel workings in the area and near Park Hill around the same time.

[72][73] The Star Inn, originally located closer to the canal,[74] was rebuilt opposite Ramper Lane by architect Harry Armitage Hickson in the early 1920s.

[78] It was announced on 8 June 1993 that Thorpe Marsh Power Station would be closing following the privatisation and dissolution of the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1991.

[85] It is now managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust,[86] while the banks of Thorpe Marsh Drain are maintained by the Environment Agency.