The village consists of the hamlets of Howgill, Martin Top, Newby, and Stopper Lane, and is in the historic West Riding of Yorkshire.

Salem Chapel, the local Congregational Church at Martin Top, was founded in 1816 and continues to serve the area.

It is a focus for a range of local activities including meetings of the parish council and of the Women's Institute.

[9] Rimington was once a township in the ancient parish of Gisburn, in the Staincliffe Wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire.

This became a civil parish in 1866, forming part of the Bowland Rural District from 1894 to 1974 within the West Riding County Council administrative boundaries.