IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Sunnyfield, MIDDLESBROUGH, TS9 6NT

The Obelisk was erected on the spot where the cottage built by Capt. James Cook's father in 1755. The cottage was sold to the Victoria state government in Australia in 1933 for £800, dismantled stone by stone and re-erected in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne, Australia. The transaction was shrouded in controversy as it is doubtful if Capt. Cook ever stayed the night in it for in 1755 James Cook would have been 27 and had just joined the British Navy. In the opinion of many in Australia they were sold a pup. However Australia had the last laugh when due to the fact that Great Ayton has a Middlesbrough postal address, the Australians signed the land and the obelisk were given to Middlesbrough Borough Council who until very recently sent workman the eight miles into North Yorkshire to cut the grass and tidy the site. I believe the matter has now been resolved. Further reading: http://www.nowandthenmag.co.uk/november1998/8.htm

To the left of the pier behind this stone wall is a hole and recess. This was cut by a member of Great Ayton Home Guard during WW2 to look out over Easby Lane. It is perhaps easy to be flippant but if Nazi Germany had invaded, and an invasion along the Redcar coast was feasible, then Great Ayton would have been quickly sacrificed and the defences withdrawn to a line further inland. The Home Guard would have had to harass and delay the invaders as long as possible.

Captain James Cook's boyhood family cottage stood on this spot but in 1934 it was dismantled and removed to Victoria, Australia. The monument is built from stones quarried near Point Hicks in the same Australian state.

On 25 May, 1769, James Cook wrote in his journal “Most part of these 24 hours Clowdy with frequent Showers of rain”. Pretty much like the weather this morning in his home village of Great Ayton then. Cook’s ship the Endeavour was moored offshore Tahiti in preparation for his task of the measurement of the transit of Venus on 3 June. Today’s photo is of the James Cook Memorial Garden in Great Ayton which has just been reopened following restoration. The obelisk and garden are on the site of the cottage of James Cook, the father of the famous explorer, and was sold, transported stone by stone and re-erected in Australia. During the restoration, the original footings of the cottage were found. There is no evidence that Captain James Cook, the son, actually ever stayed there. It is 250 years since Cook made the first of his famous voyages and made his “discoveries”. Later this year the New Zealand government are planning on spending $20 million on commemorations to celebrate Cook’s landing at Tūranganui-a-Kiwa. However, some Māori are calling for a boycott calling him a diseased, kidnapping, murderous, thieving invader. Stan Grant, an Indigenous Australian broadcaster, has written: ‘Surely we need no longer maintain the fiction that he “discovered” this country. It dishonours the people who reached this continent 60,000 years before Cook.’ I think this is very harsh. It’s naive history to interpret through modern eyes. Cook was a Naval officer, from a farming family, and would have been duty bound to carry out his orders which included: “You are also with the Consent of the Natives to take Possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain:” Of course, ‘consent’ is open to much interpretation, it gave Cook a great deal of flexibility but that discussion is perhaps for another posting as is the diseased, kidnapping, murderous and thieving allegations. Let’s stick with discovery. The right of Cook’s superiors, the British Crown, to order him to take possession of countries originated in a series of 15th-century Papal bulls or decrees known as the Doctrine of Christian Discovery by which ‘Christian’ explorers were allowed to claim ownership over those who were living in ‘non-Christian’ lands. Thus Cook, as the Crown’s representative, was able to claim Australia and New Zealand under this doctrine, hence he is referred to as the ‘discoverer’ of these lands. This doctrine is still in existence. It has not been condemned by the Pope. In 2012, the UN reported that: “the Doctrine of Discovery had been used for centuries to expropriate indigenous lands and facilitate their transfer to colonizing or dominating nations, speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues stressed today, urging the expert body to study the creation of a special mechanism, under United Nations auspices, to investigate historical land claims.” From my photo-diary for 26th May 2019 see http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=21191

One of only three pubs in this quaker influenced village on the far side of the River Leven which is in full flow after several days of heavy rain.

With Roseberry Topping in the distance. The building in the centre is Conservative Club.

Pub in Great Ayton but sadly it was closed at the time of my visit.

An archaeological dig is currently underway in Great Ayton. For those of you who are not familiar with the story, the cottage of James Cook, the father of the famous explorer, Captain James Cook, was sold in 1934, dismantled stone by stone and shipped to Australia where it was re-erected in the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne and is a major tourist attraction. In its place in Great Ayton, a memorial garden with a monument was created. Now in recent years, the garden had become neglected and work began late last year on a renovation. During the work, some foundation stones were uncovered at about a foot depth. The work was abruptly stopped pending an archaeological excavation. Apparently many years before the cottage was sold to be shipped down under, half of it had already been demolished to enable Easby Lane to be widened. The newly discovered foundations would have been for the gable end wall of the part that had been demolished. There are super old photographs of the cottage before and after this demolition here http://greatayton.wdfiles.com/local--files/individual-houses/Captain-Cooks-Cottage.pdf (but caution it is a big pdf file and takes a while to download, be patient). James Cook senior built his cottage in 1755, a decade after his son had left home to become an apprentice in Staithes. It is supposed that the younger Cook would have at least visited his family in Ayton but there is no evidence that he actually stayed in the cottage. The dig is due to finish tomorrow. From my photo-diary for 12 February 2019 http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=20787

View from Captain Cook's Cottage site on Bridge Street.