The surrounding area makes up part of the Humberhead Levels and is flat land, mainly used for mixed agriculture.

[citation needed] In the Middle Ages the village was in the Ouse and Derwent wapentake of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Hemingbrough was a large parish, and included the townships of Barlby, Osgodby, Cliffe with Lund, South Duffield, Brackenholme with Woodhall and Menthorpe with Bowthorpe.

[6] There is a memorial garden which the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu visited in April 2016.

[8] The village has a 12th-century church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, which served as a minster to this area until the dissolution of the monasteries.