[7] In 1823 South Cave was a town and civil parish in the Wapentake of Harthill, the Liberty of St Peter's, and in the division of Hunsley Beacon.

Baines's History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County of York states that the South Cave's name probably derives from the "hollow" in which it sits.

A market was held every Monday in which a "great quantity" of corn was sold and sent to West Riding towns, including Leeds and Wakefield, by way of The Humber, with commodities such as coal, lime, and stone returning.

[8] In the town Market Place was a merchant, two attorneys, an educational academy (another two existed elsewhere), a National school, a blacksmith, two boot & shoe makers, a bricklayer, four butchers, four farmers, three shopkeepers, an agent for Cave Castle, two tailors, one of whom was a draper, a further draper who was a grocer, a wheelwright, a weaver, a horse dealer, an auctioneer, a gardener, and a baker, and one trader who was a grocer, druggist, linen & woolen draper, and hardware dealer.

There were the landlords of The Bay Horse, The Bear Inn, The Fox & Coney, The Three Tuns, and The Windmill public houses.

[9] The Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail, a long distance footpath passes to the east end of the village.

[13] Cave Castle, built in 1804, is a house in Gothic Revival style on Church Hill and is Grade II listed.