In 1972, the Dr M. Aylwin Cotton Foundation was established to fund fellowships and publication grants for the study of archaeology.
In 1928, she was working as a clinical assistant at the National Heart Hospital, where she met Thomas Forrest Cotton.
[6] In 1934, Molly Cotton began working on excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorset, with Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler.
Cotton worked in the Foreign Office, and the Far Eastern Department of the Ministry of Economic Warfare during World War II.
[9] During this time, Cotton published numerous archaeological papers, focusing on Iron Age hill forts.
[1] This excavation consisted of the first thorough study of Republican villas in Italy, and set a precedent for future research, using stratigraphy and historical sequence.
Further excavations followed, at Casale Pian Roseto, South Etruria, Gravina, Cozzo Presepe, and in 1970, Monte Irsi in Basilicata.
[1] The Dr M. Alywin Cotton Foundation was established in 1972, in order to provide fellowships and publication grants to scholars in the fields of history, archaeology, Mediterranean art, architecture and language.
[1] Cotton continued excavating in the 1970s, working in Tuscania in 1972–1973, and Otranto in 1977, where she converted a castle dungeon into her finds department.