Aisled nave with N and S porches, chancel and W tower. The nave (except for its aisles) and the chancel are 12thc. The shafted SE angle of the 12thc. nave is still visible outside, while the chancel has 12thc. windows to N and S. The S aisle dates from the 14thc. and was extended W c.1400 at the same time as the tower was built. The N aisle and the porches are late 15thc. The tower is of three storeys with an octagonal stone spire. Construction is of pebble rubble except for the chancel, which is of ashlar. The upper storey of the tower is rendered. The chancel was restored in 1878 by Charles Hodgson Fowler. The S wall was completely rebuilt using ashlar from the E wall, and the Norman window reset. The E wall and an organ recess in the N wall were built entirely new, and the floor was raised. 12thc. features are the font and the chancel windows

In the 12thc. Coton was a hamlet in the parish of Grantchester, and the church was a chapel at that time but slowly gained separate status during the 13thc. and 14thc. Much of the land in Coton was held by Eustace of Boulogne in the Domesday Survey. His descendants granted the land to the Engaine family who, by 1200, were in dispute with the de Fercles, tenants of the Boulogne land in Grantchester, over the patronage of the chapel. By 1223 the Engaines had won by default.

The chancel windows, with their simple cushion capitals, heavy angle rolls and simple imposts and bases date from the early 12thc, as does the font, which uses the same vocabulary.