The village lay on the original Great North Road (Dere Street) before being bypassed.

Historically Leeming Bar was a hamlet in the wapentake of Hallikeld and a township in the ecclesiastical parish of Gatenby.

[2] Leeming Bar was in the Hambleton District until April 2023, when the regional areas of North Yorkshire were subsumed into one unitary authority.

[8] Around 1840, the barrier was moved further south towards Leeming village, as a quirk in the local bye-laws meant that people did not have to pay for travelling within 150 yards (140 m) of the crossroads on either Dere Street or the Bedale to Northallerton road.

The s-curve that Leeming Lane takes over Bedale Beck is thought to have been done to improvements made to the road when it was turnpiked in the 1740s.

[26] An industrial agricultural business trades alongside the main road in Leeming Bar.

[27][28] Leeming Bar is host to an industrial estate that houses, among other things, the headquarters of Froneri, who make Fab and Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles ice lollies.

[29] Cawingredients also have a soft drink manufacturing plant on the industrial estate covering over 10,400 square metres (112,000 sq ft).