[2][3][4] According to A Dictionary of British Place Names 'Londonthorpe' derives from the Old Scandinavian lundr+thorp, meaning an "outlying farmstead or hamlet by a grove.

[11] The Grade II* listed parish church is dedicated to St John Baptist, the tower of which dates to the early 13th century and parts of the rood screen to the 15th.

The church was rebuilt with a new roof in 1850, with considerable further restoration taking place in 1879.

[18][19] The parish also includes Prince William of Gloucester Barracks (previously RAF Spitalgate) and parts of eastern Grantham, particularly Alma Park Industrial Estate.

[20] During the 1930s the parish was a centre for the Land Settlement Association scheme, a social experiment where unemployed Durham and South Wales miners were offered specially built cottages with smallholdings of land and livestock, to encourage self-sufficiency.