The village toponymy is of Scandinavian origin named after a Norseman called Brand and the suffix of by meaning settlement or habitation.

[1] They provided a long lineage of Brandsby squires but, unfortunately, few records of this period exist as one of the Cholmeleys lost his mind and not only destroyed the family archives but threw his wife to her death (it is said) from an upper window of the Hall, giving rise to a ghost story!

[2] Roger Cholmeley of Brandsby travelled to Wingfield Manor to meet Mary, Queen of Scots on 24 August 1569.

He wrote a letter to his friend Thomas Markenfield describing the visit and invited him to his "poor house at Brandsbye".

He donated a fresh site, to the north-east of the Hall, and also met almost the entire cost of building the new church in 1770.

The result was the distinguished edifice which the village has inherited today; the only church in the district built in the classical style.

[2][4] The lordship ended with the last of the Cholmeley family, Hugh Charles Fairfax-Cholmeley, who died in 1940 after a reign of 51 years.

The Nuclear Monitoring Post is located on the road between the village and Crayke at Zion Hill Farm.

As stated above, it was built to replace the old church by the York architect Thomas Atkinson for Francis Cholmeley of Brandsby Hall in 1770.

Notable residents include England and Yorkshire cricketeer, Paul Gibb,[18] and author, Justin Hill.