Cottam is a deserted village. Its large and individually-carved 12thc font together with about half of the lintel of the doorway are now at Langtoft church (see separate site report).

The Domesday Survey does not mention a church at Cottam ('Cottun'). In 1066 Cottam was held by Ulf of Carlton; in 1086 the Domesday Survey records that the Archbishop of York had the overlordship of the manor. The medieval history of Cottam is included in the Langtoft report since the villages had been long associated. In 1274 the chapel of Holy Trinity is first mentioned as a chapelry of Langtoft.

The VCHER II, 264 describes the site of the deserted village of Cottam as one of the finest in the East Riding; it is at an altitude of 110m and has a range of platforms, humps and bumps. The derelict Victorian Holy Trinity church, on the site of the medieval building, stands to the N of Cottam House and beside a hollow road and near a small (dry) pond (Pevsner & Neave 1995, 385). The site is scheduled (list entry no. 1017068). The switch from subsistence arable farming to sheep rearing is probably the main cause of depopulation. The settlement was last taxed separately in the mid 15thc, after which it was taxed with Langtoft. By 1743, there was only one family left.

The Victorian church was built to serve the scattered farms and hamlets in the area. In 1856 there had still been ‘a small, plain, ancient building’ but that church was replaced in 1890 by the brick building known as Holy Trinity chapel. By the 1950s, this was said to have ‘long been derelict’ (Whiteing 1952-5, 6), and by 1970 it was in ruins. According to the vicar in 1971, the font and the fragment of lintel were moved to Langtoft in 1950 (VCHER II, 270, note 33).