Excavations show Dinnington to have been inhabited since at least Neolithic times, and it has been suggested that the settlement takes its name from a local barrow, though a more traditional interpretation of "Dinnington" would be "Dunn's Farmstead".
Dinnington was originally a small, isolated farming community, based around the New Road area of the town. Quarrying in the area helped expand the population, but it was the sinking of the Dinnington Colliery in 1905 that led to the real growth of the settlement. The census of 1911 shows a twenty-fold increase in population since 1901, from 250 to 5000.
The coal miners initially lived in a prefabricated shanty town in Laughton Common but later moved into Colliery-built terrace houses around the central shopping area of Laughton Road.
Dinnington continued to expand throughout the 20th century, largely through the growth of commuter living that followed the Second World War. As the housing estates spread, Dinnington began to merge seamlessly into the neighbouring settlements of Throapham and North Anston. The result is a 3.5 km strip of urban development that mainly acts as a commuter base for Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop.
In 1992, Dinnington Colliery was closed with a loss of 1000 jobs, devestating the local community. A business park on the colliery site, and small-scale commercial redevelopment has gone some way towards a recovery.
In 2003, Dinnington declared itself a town in an attempt to attract more investment and improve the local economy. This puts Dinnington in the rather unusual position of being a town within a town in that it is part of the metropolitan borough of the town of Rotherham.