The head of the manor is noted as Gilling and lands before the Norman conquest belonged to Earl Edwin and Ulf.

After 1086 the lands were granted to Count Alan of Brittany, with a small allocation to Godric, the steward and an unnamed individual.

The last confirmed lord of the manor was the Earl of Tyrconnel and thence possibly his cousin Walter Cecil Talbot.

[2][3] The etymology of the village name is a combination of the Old English words of cū and tūn meaning Cow farm.

[3][2] On 22 August 1138 the English armies defeated the Scottish at nearby Cowton Moor in the Battle of the Standard.

The fields behind Holywell Lane are perhaps the burial grounds for the Scottish; the medieval name for the area was "Scotch Graves".

[2] The disbanded Eryholme-Richmond branch line passed nearby with a former railway station at Moulton End, around ¼ of a mile from North Cowton.

[13] It is within the catchment area of Richmond School and Sixth Form College for secondary education, to the age of eighteen.

There is also a village hall, football pitch, tennis court, two children's playgrounds, a bus stop, a war memorial, two public telephone boxes, two community notice boards and two postboxes.