[1] Burrington is believed to mean 'The villa and an enclosure' from the Old English bur, end and tun.

[5] It is very close to Burrington Combe where there is evidence of occupation since Neolithic times, the Bronze Age and Roman periods.

The parish falls within the unitary authority of North Somerset which was created in 1996, as established by the Local Government Act 1992.

[11] The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the Wells and Mendip Hills constituency.

It was also part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament prior to Britain leaving the European Union in January 2020, which elected seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.