Little is known of the early history of the village, but archaeologists have dated more than 8000 local flints to between 10,000 and 2000 BC, and crop marks around the village point to ditched enclosures and field systems in the Iron Age and Roman period. Roman artifacts have been found and in 1936 a Roman burial site was identified to the north of the village. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book, where it has a higher value than Wetherby. The Anglo-Saxon place name means "flax farm". There was a now-vanished medieval chapel in the village, possibly founded by the Percy family, once the landowners. A Topographical Dictionary of England calls it "a township, in the parish of Spofforth, Upper division of the wapentake of Claro, W. riding of York, 1¾ mile from Wetherby; containing 169 inhabitants. The township comprises by computation 1030 acres. The village is situated on the north side of the vale of the Wharfe. A rent-charge of £257. 10. has been awarded as a commutation for the tithes. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans." A correspondent writing in the Leeds Mercury on 8 September 1874 notes, "On the opposite side of the Wharfe , perched on the hillside, is the picturesque village of Linton, the most conspicuous object being a neat Wesleyan chapel." According to Kelly's Directory of 1893, Linton had four farms, a school, a manor house, and a public house. The population of Linton in the 1920s was only 130. The golf course on Linton Ings opened in 1910. The architect William Alban Jones was responsible for several houses built in the Arts and Crafts style round the old village centre in the 1920s, and also for the Memorial Hall. The Grade II listedLinton Bridge was built over the River Wharfe in the early to mid-19th century. It was closed in December 2015 after being damaged by flood water in the aftermath of Storm Eva, but reopened in September 2017.
Facilities
Main Street has a public house, the Windmill Inn, which includes a restaurant. There is no shop or school. Wetherby Golf Club is situated in Linton. The historic Wood Hall Hotel and Spa is situated on the outskirts of the village; it has function rooms and health-club facilities. The Memorial Hall has a car park and tennis courts.
Owen Lattimore, American scholar of Mongolia and China, lived in the village in the 1960s while he was the first Professor of Chinese at the University of Leeds.
Geoffrey Appleyard, an army officer of commandos much decorated in World War II, was brought up in Linton.
Ian Appleyard, brother of Geoffrey, was a rally driver and ornithologist.
