Cottenham is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. Cottenham is one of the larger villages surrounding the city of Cambridge, located around five miles north of the city. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 6095. Cottenham is one of a number of villages that make up the historical Fen Edge region in between Cambridge and Ely, which were originally settlements on the shore of the marshes close to the city of Cambridge, then an inland port. History Much of Cottenham parish lies on a lower greensand ridge around 25 feet (8m) above sea level, which until the 17th century draining of the Fens was the only dry land in between Cambridge and the Isle of Ely around 12 miles to the north-east of the village. The southern side of the parish lies on raised fertile red loam, and the original village settlement is believed to have started as a Roman British island community taking advantage of fertile pasture at the edge of the marshland in between Cambridge and Ely. The growth into a permanent medieval village is thought to have begun from a nucleus of houses defined by High Street, Rooks Street and Denmark Road, a suggestion supported by excavations off Denmark Road and High Street conducted by the University of Cambridge in 1997. The lowest part of the parish lies below 15 feet (4.5m) at Smithey Fen in the north of the village, with the remnants of excavated peat beds still present there. As part of an extensive fenland region, Cottenham is drained by a system of ditches and lodes which are believed to have been built or at least significantly expanded by the Romans. The northern regions of the parish drain into the Roman Car Dyke, a large drainage ditch which traverses the Fens in between the River Cam and the River Great Ouse, and the central village drains into Cottenham Lode, one of the many Cambridgeshire Lodes used to connect villages to the River Great Ouse as it travelled towards The Wash. The north-east of the parish is bounded by a section of the major Roman road, Akeman Street. The parish is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as housing 60 tenants, however the population fluctuated until the 13th century when the parish boundaries became somewhat fixed and pastures were enclosed. River transportation along the River Great Ouse which lies to the