Winterton has a long history going back to Roman times and several large mosaic floors and other Roman remains have been found there.

Winterton is in the north of Lincolnshire, about 8 miles north of Scunthorpe and a mile and a half south of the River Humber. The name Winterton is from the Old English Wintra+inga+tun, or "Homestead of the followers of Wintra". In the 1086 Domesday Book, the village name is given as "Wintrintune". 

A Roman villa stood at Winterton and some of its mosaics and artifacts have been recovered. Holy Well, near the village, was considered a medicinal cure by the ancients. William the Conqueror granted Lordship of Winterton to Norman D'Arcy, whose descendants held it for several centuries. 

The Anglican church tower and nave at Winterton may have an Anglo-Saxon origin. The Anglican Church is dedicated to All Saints.

In October 1968, during road-widening works on the A1077, workers came across a massive stone coffin containing a skeleton later identified as being that of a young woman aged between 20 and 25 years of age, who stood 5'3" (1.6 m) tall. She was of high status, as determined by the high quality of the coffin made from a single block of limestone and she was also found to be laid on a sheet of lead. Down the hill from this spot are the remains of one of the Winterton roman villas, which is famous for its mosaic pavements where it is most likely she lived.

The late Professor Cameron (in The Place Names of Lincolnshire, Vol 6, p125) thought the village's name meant the farmstead, the village or the estate of the Winteringas, who were perhaps followers of someone called Winter or Wintra. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is called variously Wintrintune, once; Wintrintone, four times; Wintritone, twice and Wintretune, once .