It was founded in 1978 and has grown from a small department based at Micklegate House to more than a hundred undergraduate students based at King's Manor and with scientific facilities at the BioArCh centre on the main campus.

The first head of department, Philip Rahtz built a thematic undergraduate programme specialising in the British Middle Ages.

A postgraduate programme was added and the department moved to King's Manor.

[11] In the 2015 University Subject Tables, the department was ranked 6th out of 40 with a score of 92.6%.

[12] The Department was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2011[13]