It is situated approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of Driffield town centre and lies just south of the A614 road.

Early hunter-gatherers established temporary camp sites throughout the area, subsisting from woodlands foraging, deer, boars, bears, and wild cattle.

The nearby Yorkshire Wolds were later the site of substantial human activity during the neolithic and the area features burial mounds, with frequent finds of lithic technology.

Occupations included sixteen farmers & yeomen, two blacksmiths, four bricklayers and one brick maker, two carpenters, six grocers, five shoemakers, three tailors, two drapers, an earthenware dealer, a gardener, a plumber & glazier, a horse dealer, a cabinet maker, a rope & twine and a linen manufacturer, a schoolmaster, and the landlords of The Bell, The Cross Keys, The King's Head, and The white Horse public houses.

[7] Its best-known vicar was the parson-naturalist Francis Orpen Morris (1810–1893), author of highly successful books on birds, butterflies and moths.

Nafferton railway station has regular train services to Bridlington, Beverley and Hull with several running through to Scarborough, Doncaster, Meadowhall and Sheffield.