Until the 1974 local government reorganisation Wharram-le-Street was part of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The village is on the B1248 road between North Grimston and the boundary with the present East Riding of Yorkshire unitary authority.

[1] The nave and lower part of the west tower were built in the early or mid-11th century, in the last decades before the Norman conquest of England.

[1] The top of the tower is slightly later, representing the Saxo-Norman overlap architecture of the late 11th or early 12th century.

[4] The affix "le-Street" in the toponym refers to the fact that the village is beside the course of a former Roman road.