[1] The village is situated on the Silt Fen (also known as the Townland), formed before the Bronze Age.

[3] According to Gardiner, "[i]n 1286 Sir Roger de Colvil[l]e married Desiderata, grand-daughter of Sir Stephen de Maresco, lord of Newton, Walsoken, and Tidd St Giles, and through her acquired Newton which became the chief residence of the (Colville) family for over 500 hundred years", until it was sold in 1792.

[4] The College of St Mary by the Sea was founded here during the reign of Henry IV by Sir John Colville.

Its endowments were specifically exempted from dissolution in the 1547 legislation of Edward VI, the lands instead being transferred to support the rectory of Newton.

The temporary woad mill taken down at Parson Drove in 1914 for the final time had previously been located at Newton, Spalding, Tydd St Giles and Whaplode Marsh.