The village has a simple linear shape formed by Hallgate, Northgate and Newgate/South Street, which run east-west parallel to each other. King Street, with Market Green, links them north-south. To the north of Northgate lay the Norman manorial deer park. The western section of Newgate was later re-named South Street, south of which was the former South Wood.

Not shown on the map is Mill Beck, running north-south between St Mary’s church and the railway line to its east. From medieval times it drove two water-powered corn mills. East of the beck lay a medieval pasture (The Thwaite) and extensive meadows (ings), marshlands (carrs) and dykes all the way eastward to the river Hull and southward towards Anlaby, Kingston-upon-Hull and the river Humber. Cottingham is an Anglo-Saxon name but gate ‘street’, keld ‘spring’, beck ‘stream’, thwaite ‘felled woodland (for pasture)’, ing ‘meadow’, carr ‘marsh’ and dyke ‘ditch’ are from Old Norse and reflect the settlement of Danes here after the Viking conquest of the late ninth century. The Normans fortified the manor house, rebuilt the parish church and founded a priory. After the Reformation, non-conformism became strongly rooted here. From the late 17th century onwards, Cottingham was a favoured place for Hull merchants to build or rent a fine ‘country’ house. In the 19th and 20th centuries market gardeners made a good living out of Cottingham’s fertile soils, selling their produce to Hull. After the coming of the railway in 1846 it became a dormitory town for Hull, which has since gobbled up much of eastern and southern Cottingham. Since the 20th century a great deal of housing has been built in parts of the old parkland, farmland, woodland, and drained marshland. Until recently, Hull University housed several thousand students here. For more detail click on HISTORY.