West Ella is considered to be one of the most exclusive and desirable villages to live in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The village lies in the eastern foothills of the Yorkshire Wolds and is at between 40 and 60 metres (130 and 200 ft) above sea level, rising westward.

[5] Writers in the 19th century speculated that the names of nearby features, Kerry Pits (south-east of the village) and The Lunds (north-east, now a golf course) were etymological evidence of druidic activities in the area; "Kerry" being postulated to derive from "cyric" (place of worship); "lund" meaning grove, a reference to a (druidic) grove.

[12][13][14][15] In 1850 the village consisted of a single street, with West Ella Hall and its large grounds at the east end on the south side; the Manor House off a short track to the south; and less than twenty other buildings.

[16] A Wesleyan Methodist church was built 1895,[17] in other respects development of the village was unchanged at the beginning of the 20th century.

[19] By the 1960s a new road and housing estate had been built north of the original village : Elveley Drive and The Fairway, in the area of plantation known as Long Drive Wood;[20] by the beginning of the 1970s this had been extended connecting northwards to Riplingham Road.