There are lots of publications which can tell you more about Cottenham and its landscape. Here are a selection:
Britist Geological Survey, 1:50,000 series, England and Wales sheet 188, 1981
Chatwin, CP, British regional geology: East Anglia, HMSO 1961
Cunningham, W (Ed.), Common rights at Cottenham and Streatham in Cambridgeshire, Royal Historical Society, 1910
Peacock, Olwyn, Cottenham's orchards and gardens, Cottenham Village Society 1990
Peacock, Olwyn, Cottenham in chaos; life at the time of the enclosure, Cottenham Village Society 1996
Peacock, Olwyn, Cottenham commons and cheese, Cottenham Village Society 1985
Ravensdale, J R, Liable to floods; village landscape on the edge of the fens AD 450-1850, Cambridge University Press, 1974
Taylor, Alison, The archaeology of Cambridgeshire, Vol II, Cambridgeshire County Council 1998
Taylor, Christopher, The Cambridgeshire landscape, Hodder and Stoughton 1973
Victoria History of the Counties of England: Cambridge and the Isle of Ely, Volume IX, pp 48-70, Oxford University Press 1989
Most of these are available from the Cottenham public library, or from the Cambridgeshire Collection in Cambridge Central Library, where you'll also find a goldmine of photographs, press clippings and other information. Ordnance Survey maps, old and new, are another fascinating source. For more detailed research, many original documents relating to Cottenham can be found in the Cambridgeshire Record Office.