It is roughly rectangular in shape with the river and Northampton branch of the Grand Union Canal forming its northern boundary.

As of 2021, following local government reorganisation, the parish now forms part of the Delapre ward of West Northamptonshire Council.

That name derived from the Old English "Cot" meaning a cottage or hut, Cotes being a plural form.

[3] The original line, on which Northampton Bridge Street railway station was situated, was entirely south of the Nene while the medieval town was north of the river.

[6] The Hardingstone district was enlarged in 1874 to take in the ecclesiastical parish of St James, which had been created in 1872 covering the growing western suburbs of Northampton.

[9] The Far Cotton Urban District was short-lived; it was abolished four years later in 1900 and absorbed into the county borough of Northampton.

[14] As part of the regeneration of the town, overseen by the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation, many brownfield sites in Far Cotton underwent redevelopment in the first decade of the twenty-first century including the new housing estates of Riverside Wharf, Cotton End and Southbridge.

Since that time river banks have been raised and flood mitigation lakes created west of the town.

Chief Inspector Walter Dew, who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper and Dr. Crippen, was born in the village in 1863.