[14] Land within the parish is largely agricultural, with various ponds acting as a good reserve for great crested newts, one of a handful of sites in Ryedale where they still thrive.

[19] In 2020, a leaky dam water storage project was approved for 151 acres (61 ha) of land surrounding the river in the south of the parish.

[20][21][22] The scheme would see a 1.03-mile (1.65 km) long bund being built with a concrete substructure which would trap the floodwater, and release it slowly at a rate of 350 cubic feet per second (10 m3/s).

[27][28] Lillings Ambo was a township in the ecclesiastical parish of Sheriff Hutton in the 19th century, which itself, was part of the wapentake of Bulmer.

It is now administered by North Yorkshire Council and is part of the Sheriff Hutton & Derwent ward for electoral purposes.