[4] There are public footpaths to Tockwith to the north, Healaugh to the south-east, Wighill to the south and Syningthwaite to the south-west.

The church underwent restoration around 1870 under the direction of George Gilbert Scott.

[13] Bilton Hall became a Grade II listed building in 1966, cited as a "small country house.

"[14] Also listed Grade II at that time was a private house known as Bilton Brow.

[17] A Bronze Age hoard was discovered on Bilton Moor, pointing to prehistoric habitation.

The village appears in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Biletone of the Annesti (Bilton in Ainsty).

The parish registers go back in 1571 and record for 1644 the burial of several soldiers killed in the nearby Battle of Marston Moor, after which some Royalist prisoners were held in the church.

Bilton Hall and its manor passed to the Plumer family in the 18th century, who established a school in 1801.

[16] John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–72) described Bilton, then including not only Bickerton, but Tockwith, as follows: "BILTON, a township, a parish, and a subdistrict in the district of Tadcaster, W. R. Yorkshire.

"[18] The writer sisters Annie (1825–1879) and Eliza Keary (1827–1918) were born at what is now the Old Vicarage, Church Lane, Bilton-in-Ainsty, where their father, Rev.

[19] The oldest brother, also William Keary and born in Bilton, was a solicitor who became the first mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, when it was incorporated in 1874.