[12] Other British place names with the element Grim are explained as referring to Woðen/Oðin (e.g. Grimsbury, Grimspound, Grime's Graves, Grimsditch, Grimsworne), and Grimsby is likely to have the same derivation.

In the 12th century, Grimsby grew into a fishing and trading port, at one time ranking twelfth in importance to the Crown for tax revenue.

Vér hǫfum vaðnar leirur   vikur fimm megingrimmar; saurs vara vant, er várum,   viðr, í Grímsbœ miðjum.

Nú'r þat's más of mýrar   meginkátliga látum branda elg á bylgjur   Bjǫrgynjar til dynja.

After the dredging of The Haven and related improvement in the early 19th century, Grimsby grew rapidly as the port boomed, importing iron, timber, wheat, hemp, and flax.

In a rare reversal of usual trends, large numbers of fishermen from the south-east and Devon travelled north to join the Grimsby fleet.

Trawlers used the winches and warps from fishing operations to tow a paravane with a cutting jaw through the water in what was known as a "sweep" to bring mines to the surface and allow for their removal.

This hazardous work lost the Patrol Service more vessels than any other Royal Navy branch in the Second World War; 2,385 men died.

[21] Grimsby's Royal Naval Patrol Service veterans financed a memorial beside the Dock Tower to ensure that the bravery and sacrifice of their comrades were not forgotten.

After the pressures placed on the industry during the Cod Wars and the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy, which redistributed fishing quotas to other EU nations, many Grimsby firms decided to cease trawling operations there.

[24] Huge numbers became redundant, highly skilled in jobs that no longer existed, and struggled to find work ashore.

[27] Berthed in Alexandra Dock is the Ross Tiger, the last survivor of what was once the world's largest fleet of sidewinder trawlers.

"[29] Redevelopment was planned as part of Yorkshire Forward's Renaissance Towns Programme,[citation needed] but the scheme was abandoned in 2012.

[32] Since the December 2019 general election, Lia Nici (Conservative) has been the Member of Parliament for the Great Grimsby constituency, having won the seat from the former MP, Melanie Onn (Labour), who had served since 2015.

In 2007, in the struggle for identity, it was suggested that the district be renamed Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, but this did not meet with favour among local residents, and the Council Leader dropped the idea a year later.

Greater Grimsby is a European centre of excellence in producing chilled prepared meals, and the area has Europe's largest concentration of cold-storage facilities.

Two multi-storey car parks were constructed at each end of the centre; with this development, the old Top Town area of Grimsby was effectively privatised and roofed over.

Once the head office of local brewers Hewitt Brothers, the building was renovated in the mid-1980s and now houses restaurants and designer clothing stores.

Other developments near the town centre since the 1980s include the Alexandra Retail Park and Sainsbury's to the west of Alexandra Dock, an Asda store between the town centre and Freeman Street, and the Victoria Mills Retail Park off the Peaks Parkway A16,[51] which has several chain stores, including Next and close to a Tesco Extra (the second in the area.

Most major supermarkets have expanded in the early 21st century, including Asda, and Tesco at Hewitts Circus, which is technically in adjoining Cleethorpes.

Such is the quality of shopping in the area that bus services bring shoppers from across Lincolnshire, especially smaller towns such as Louth,[54] Brigg, and Scunthorpe.

[56] Its proximity to the biggest cluster of offshore wind farms in Europe has brought around 1,500 jobs to the area, most of them in turbine maintenance.

The Environment Agency has awarded Sheffield-based telemetry company CSE Seprol a contract to supply flood-warning devices for risk areas in East Anglia.

The 18 sirens, at various locations round the flood-risk area of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, should reach 25,500 households to warn of flood danger.

[citation needed] Park House mainly teaches pupils who have been suspended or excluded by other schools, and according to BBC News is "turning many of those lives around".

GCT ran a mixture of crewed and one-person operated services,[citation needed] but in 1982 the job of the conductor was abolished.

The service to Cleethorpes runs at least hourly during the day along a single track, passing stations at Grimsby Docks and New Clee.

It has teams playing at various levels throughout the English Ice Hockey Association structure, under the name of Grimsby Red Wings.

In 2009 the club added an ice sled hockey team to ensure that it was able to offer a fully inclusive sport for the NE Lincolnshire area.

Previously on Cleethorpe Road, the Grimsby hospital moved in 2005 to a new building, Coco Markus House, on Nelson Street.