In A Dictionary of British Place Names, A. D. Mills identifies the elements skarth or skafr and the ending haugr to give the meaning as 'Mound near a gap' or a mound 'frequented by cormorants'.

[2] The earliest surviving written reference to Scartho is in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it shares an entry with the adjoining parishes of Laceby and Bradley.

[5] Walter Johnson in Byways in British Archaeology considers the tower to date from the period of church building in the 1042 to 1066 reign of Edward the Confessor and disagrees with 19th century suggestions that the stonework shows signs of scorch mark from having been torched during earlier Viking raids.

Following the Local Government Act 1929, the workhouse came under the control of Grimsby Town Council's public assistance committee and was renamed Scartho Road Institution.

Following the erection of the new Princess of Wales' hospital to the south of the site, a number of the former workhouse buildings have been demolished or stand empty.

The site where one bomb fell is now home to a branch of Barclays Bank, an optician, a few shops and a dance school.

A monument giving thanks that no-one was hurt can be found at a spot where another bomb fell, in the churchyard of the nearby parish church of St. Giles, itself believed to be nearly a thousand years old.

[citation needed] The village saw post-war growth following the then government-policy of local councils building houses to replace those damaged in the war.

This led to the development of three estates on green-belt land around the village: Springfield, Fairfield and (on a smaller-scale) the area around Edge Avenue.

In 1960 the local council built a swimming pool at the northernmost tip of the village boundary, next to the Barratts Playing Field.

On Louth Road is a number of other businesses including a veterinary clinic, a newsagent, a building society and a pet store.