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Wellingborough was founded in the early 6th century Saxon period by a Saxon leader Waendel. The town was named 'Wendelingburgh' now known as Wellingborough. There are five wells that are found around the town these are Red Well, Hemming Well, Stanwell, Lady's Well and Whyte Well, which appear on its coat of arms.

The medieval town of Wellingborough housed a modest monastic grange - now the Jacobean Croyland 'Abbey' - which was an offshoot of the larger monastery of Croyland Abbey, near Peterborough, some 30 miles (48 km) down-river. This part of the town is now known as 'Croyland'.

All Hallows Church is the oldest existing building in Wellingborough and dates from c. 1160. The manor of Wellingborough belonged to Crowland Abbey Lincolnshire, from Saxon times and the monks probably built the original church. The earliest part of the building is the Norman doorway opening in from the later south porch. The church was enlarged with the addition of more side chapels and by the end of the 13th century had assumed more or less its present plan. The west tower, crowned with a graceful broach spire rising to 160 feet (49 m), was completed about 1270, after which the chancel was rebuilt and given the east window twenty years later. The twentieth century Church of St Mary was built by Ninian Comper.

Wellingborough was given a Market Charter dated 3 April 1201 when King John granted it to the "Abbot of Croyland and the monks serving God there" continuing, "they shall have a market at Wendligburg (Wellingborough) for one day each week that is Wednesday".

In Elizabethan times the Lord of the Manor, Sir Christopher Hatton was a sponsor of Sir Francis Drake's expeditions; Drake renamed one of his ships the Golden Hind after the heraldic symbol of the Hatton family. A hotel in a Grade II listed building built in 1600s, is still named the Hind Hotel.

During the Civil War the largest substantial conflict in the area was the Battle of Naseby in 1645, although a minor skirmish in the town resulted in the killing of a parliamentarian officer Captain John Sawyer. Severe reprisals followed which included the carrying off to Northampton of the parish priest, Thomas Jones, and 40 prisoners by a group of Roundheads. However, after the Civil War Wellingborough was home to a colony of Diggers. Little is known about this period and local historians suspect deliberate suppression, although the naming of a residential street after Gerrard Winstanley, a prominent leader of the Diggers, suggests some public knowledge. The neighbouring streets name other religious reformers John Knox and Matthew Newcomen, implying that the naming was based Winstanley's life rather than on the Digging.

Originally the town had two railway stations called London Road which was the first station in the town, linking Peterborough with Northampton, this line closed in 1966. The second station, Midland Road, is still in operation with trains to London and the East Midlands. Since then the 'Midland Road' was dropped from the station name. The 1857 railway station serving Kettering and a little later Corby, was linked in 1867 to London St Pancras. In 1898 in the Wellingborough rail accident six or seven people died and and around 65 were injured. In the 1880s two businessmen held a public meeting to build three tram lines in Wellingborough, the group merged with a similar company in Newport Pagnell who started to lay tram tracks, but within two years the plans are abandoned for lack of funds.

In Domesday, it was Wendlesberie and likely means "the fortified place of Waendel's people".