The parish extends to the bank of the Humber Estuary at its southern extreme, and into the Yorkshire Wolds in the northern part.

The A63 road and Hull to Selby railway line both bisect the parish east–west, south of Melton and Welton.

[3] Welton village is situated approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of the town of Brough on the north side of the A63 road to Kingston upon Hull.

The exposed boulder clay at Red Cliff on the Humber bank is an archaeological site returning Roman deposits.

[4][5][6] The Church of St Helen is at the centre of the village, with a defunct mill pond to the north and west.

[note 1] Most of the village's housing is of brick, predominantly red, some painted or rendered in with most buildings two storied, either Georgian or Victorian in style.

[27] Welton House was demolished in 1952,[22] St Anne's Community Special School was established on part of the site in 1974.

[34] The restoration was by George Gilbert Scott, resulting in a church in a 13th-century gothic revival style; the resulting structure was essentially rebuilt and added a south aisle and north transept, with some 15th-century columns and arches, and a piscina retained, a scalloped column capital, an effigy of a knight, and a lancet window date to the 12th and 13th centuries.

The restoration also introduced stained glass windows by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier.

Human activity in the parish dates to the prehistoric period, Redcliff,[note 3] on the Humber bank at the boundary with the neighbouring parish of North Ferriby is evidenced to have been a trading site during the period of the Roman conquest of Britain (1st century AD),[39] evidence of iron working at the site has also been found.

Clay extraction for the cement works became extensive and eventually extended westwards along the Humber bank into Welton Ings.

By 1970 greenhouse based horticulture had started to be developed south of Welton village – this became extensive and extended westwards into the neighbouring parish of Elloughton-cum-Brough by the 1980s;[12] by 2006 this had been reduced in scale, in part due to the expansion of the suburban outskirts of Brough, which by 2006 extended into the western fringe of the parish.