The village is first mentioned in theDomesday Book of 1086 asCotingelai in the wapentake ofSkyrack and the lands of Erneis of Buron.[1] The first element is thepersonal nameCotta (the origin of which is unknown), and the second the suffix-ingas denoting a group of associated people. Thus theCottingas were a group descended from or otherwise associated with someone called Cotta. This group name was then compounded with the Old English wordlēah ('open land in a wood'). Thus the name once meant 'the clearing of the descendants of Cotta'.[2][3]
The village was clustered around the original St Michael's Church,Cottingley Town Hall and the Sun Inn. This village was 2.5 miles (4 km) from Bingley, with Cottingley Bridge a mile closer.[4][5][6]
In 1917, two girls, 15-year old Elsie Wright and nine-year old Frances Griffiths, claimed to have photographed fairies in the dell (Cottingley Beck) at the bottom of their garden. This led to theCottingley Fairies hoax, which still resonates in the village into the modern day.[7] The village has a festival to celebrate the story (Cottingley Fairy Fest), and in 1997, parts of a film inspired by the story,FairyTale: A True Story, were filmed in the village.[8][9]
The village is in the Aire Valley betweenShipley andBingley approximately 330 feet (100 m) above sea level with theRiver Aire to the north.[11] The road through the village has been changed at least twice. Originally, to exit south from Bingley, travellers had to crossIreland Bridge thenBeckfoot Bridge and approach Cottingley on the south side of the river.[12] The bridge across the River Aire leading towards Bingley was built by 1649, when it appears in theBook of Bridges in the Session Rolls of Wakefield. It was recorded in 1664 that "a great floode hath taken away the foundations so that the whole bridge is shrunke."[13] Cottingley Bridge was rebuilt and in the early 19th century, it was a hamlet independent of Cottingley.[14][15]
TheA650 road is now to the north of Cottingley after a bypass was built and opened in 2003.[16] The land to the east of theB6269 is mainly flat and to the west rises to a height of 560 feet (170 m) at March Cote Farm.[11][17] Cottingleybeck cuts a deep, narrow, rocky channel flowing north to the River Aire.[18]
Although the road, railway and theLeeds and Liverpool Canal are on the opposite side of the Aire Valley to Cottingley, Parliament was asked to consider making the Aire Navigable from Cottingley to Shipley.[19]
The village lies onMillstone Grit and there are coal deposits, some bands and seams up to 75 feet (23 m) thick.[20] Old mine shafts litter the fields either side of Cottingley Cliffe Road shown as either Old Coal Pits or Coal pits on the 1852 map, and one is listed asCottingley Moor Bottom as having closed in 1860.[21]
There are two churches in the village; St Mary and St Monica is the Catholic church and the Church of St Michael and All Angels is the Anglican Church.[22] St Michaels and All Angels was part of a regeneration project that spent £4.5 million, which included meeting rooms, a doctor's surgery, nursery and youth facilities and 50 new homes. The project started because a 1960s war memorial had been vandalised, and reports in the press caught the eye of Prince Charles, who came to speak at the grand unveiling.[23][24]
The village has a primary school on Cottingley Moor Road, ratedGood by OFSTED,[25] and a secondary school,Dixons Cottingley Academy.[26] Cottingley Town Hall, which is nowgrade II listed, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015.[27][28]
Cottingley Hall is shown on the 1908 map near the site of Cottingley Manor Park. On the 1852 map it is Cottingley House. (As Cottingley Hall bore the date 1659 RAF (Robert & Anne Ferrand) together with the Knights double cross, Cottingley House and Cottingley Hall are different names for the same property.)[31][18]
Cottingley also had a reservoir managed by Cottingley Water Works Co. This is shown above Manor Farm (now March Cote Lane) on the local map of 1908.[6]
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