[1] Bickerton is mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Gospatric and having four villagers.

[2] The name of the village derives from the Old English of bīcere and tūn; the town of the bee-keepers.

[3][4] Historically, the village was in the wapentake of Ainsty, in what was the West Riding of Yorkshire.

[5][6] The road to the immediate south of the village was part of the Bickerton and Rufforth Turnpike trust, and in the 1820s, Bickerton was a stop on the coaching route between Leeds and York.

[7][8][9] The modern day designation of the road is the B1224, which runs between York and Wetherby.