Evidence of early settlement is indicated by the finding of a cast copper broach in the village, which was based on a late Roman age coin.

[3] As such, the village was historically part of the Danelaw area of England but by 1086 was recorded as in the lordship of William de Percy.

[3] The historical animal husbandry method of tethering cattle was carried out in the village and there is a place called teatherings refecting this.

St Mary's Church originally possessed a Norman lead font, which was the only one in Lincolnshire – being only 30 such examples in England.

The font was moved to the newer church of St Barnabas and is now in the North Lincolnshire Museum, Scunthorpe.

These were erected in the 17th century on the orders of King James I as a deterrent to two local feuding families – the Ros's from Melton Ross and the Tyrwhits from Kettleby.

[citation needed] Although Barnetby had a small amount of rail freight traffic originating from it, most of the trains were passing through on the way to Immingham or Grimsby.

Although Lincolnshire has a reputation for being flat, this part of the county has several steep inclines and many freights required extra locomotives in order to cope with the gradients.

The biggest volume is the imported coal to feed power stations and the nearby Corus steelworks at Scunthorpe.

Bus services are often dictated by various factors such as school and college periods and the market days in the nearby town Brigg.

Humberside Airport is approximately 4 miles away from the village and operates daily services to Amsterdam and Aberdeen among various holiday destinations.

The village has major links to other cities such as Kingston upon Hull (via the A15 and A63), Grimsby (via the A180), Doncaster (via the M180), Sheffield (via the M180 and M1), Leeds (via the M180 and M62) and Manchester (via the M180 and M62).

Work in 2016 created a new small roundabout junction at the top of the village (from Kings Road) with links to the A18 from the direction of Brigg and Melton Ross.