Utterby railway station[2] (or Utterby Halt), on the line between Grimsby and Louth, closed in 1961.
Near to the Village is the site of a former Gilbertinepriory.[3] It is believed that the monks of this priory built the village's Packhorse bridge in the 14th century.[4]
The name Utterby comes from the Scandinavian 'by' which means village, and is a common place name suffix in the area. The 'utter' comes from the Old English 'uttera', cognate with the modern English word 'outer', or remote, and not the modern Swedish 'utter' which means otter. Therefore, to the Vikings this was 'the remote village'.[5]
This is a common construction also seen in Itterby, one of the parishes which formed Cleethorpes, and also Ytterby in Sweden, which is relatively frequent in Scandinavia and from which derive the names of the Chemical elementsYttrium, Ytterbium, Terbium and Erbium.[citation needed]
^Conolly, W. Philip (2004) [1958]. British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Ltd. pp. 22 & section G2. ISBN978-0-7110-0320-0.