Established | 28 October 1978 |
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Location | Stewart Park, Middlesbrough |
Coordinates | 54°32′18″N1°12′09″W / 54.53830°N 1.20240°W |
Nearest car park | Use Stewart Park car park |
Website | The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum |
Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is a public museum located in Stewart Park in Marton, Middlesbrough within the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is one of two institutions managed by Middlesbrough Council, along with the Dorman Museum.
The museum opened on 28 October 1978, the 250th anniversary of the birth in the same spot of British naval explorer and circumnavigator Captain James Cook. [1] It is a biographical museum that surveys Cook's life and journeys.
Prior to the museum's establishment, there was a granite urn in Stewart Park commemorating the grounds of Marton Hall, Cook's residence. The urn was erected in the 1850s by local industrialist and mayor Henry Bolckow. [2] Marton Hall was destroyed by fire in 1960 during demolition, with only a stone loggia surviving. [3]
The museum itself comprises some of the modest Cook-related collections outside of the ownership of the major national and international collections, including household items and a speculative reconstruction of Cook's birthplace cottage that was swept away amid the landscaping process for the Marton Lodge, home to the Rudd family, which stood here until 1793. There are a series of interactive displays and temporary travelling exhibitions as well as a cafe, gift shop, education suite and resources and archive room.
A second major refurbishment was undertaken in 1998, which included the commission of two modern works of art by Turner Prize nominee Simon Patterson. [4] The museum was reopened to the public by Sir David Attenborough.[ citation needed ] Outside the museum is an information board in deference to Marton's position as the starting point for the Captain Cook Country Tour, a product of the Cleveland-wide Captain Cook Tourism Association. [5]
Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Middlesbrough is a town in the Middlesbrough unitary authority borough of North Yorkshire, England. The town lies near the mouth of the River Tees and north of the North York Moors National Park. The built-up area had a population of 148,215 at the 2021 UK census. It is the largest town of the wider Teesside area, which had a population of 376,633 in 2011.
Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and civil parish on the River Tees's southern bank. It is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. The parish had a population of 24,741 at the 2011 census, in the Teesside built-up area.
Marton is an area of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Until the 1950s, it was a small village next to the hamlet of Tollesby in Yorkshire's North Riding.
Great Ayton is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. The River Leven flows through the village, which lies just north of the North York Moors.
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland is a constituency created in 1997 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Simon Clarke of the Conservative Party.
Middlesbrough College, located on one campus at Middlehaven, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, is the largest college on Teesside.
Normanby is an area in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. A ward covering the area had a population of 6,930 at the 2011 census. It is part of Greater Eston, which includes the area and the outlying settlements of Eston, Grangetown, South Bank, Teesville and part of Ormesby.
Marton is a railway station on the Esk Valley Line, which runs between Middlesbrough and Whitby via Nunthorpe. The station, situated 2 miles 79 chains (4.8 km) south-east of Middlesbrough, serves the suburbs of Marton, Middlesbrough and Ormesby, Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Stainton is a village in the south-west outskirts of Middlesbrough, England. It is in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire.
The James Cook University Hospital is a tertiary referral hospital and regional major trauma centre in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England located on the A172. Having 1,046 beds, it caters for most specialities and forms part of the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, along with the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.
George Thomas Rudd was an English priest and entomologist mainly interested in Coleoptera.
The Cleveland Hills are a range of hills on the north-west edge of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England, overlooking Cleveland and Teesside. They lie entirely within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park. Part of the 110-mile (177 km) long Cleveland Way National Trail runs along the hills, and they are also crossed by a section of Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk. The hills, which rise abruptly from the flat Tees Valley to the north, include distinctive landmarks such as the cone-shaped peak of Roseberry Topping, near the village of Great Ayton – childhood home of Captain James Cook.
The A172 is a major road in North Yorkshire, and the unitary authority of Middlesbrough, England. It runs from Ingleby Arncliffe to Middlesbrough. The road derives its adumbrated number from 1969 when a thoroughfare link connected South Teesside with the Lackenby Docks in Middlesbrough. Since further urban infrastructure development it has been extended into the North Yorkshire Moors, when it transforms into A174.
Stewart Park is a 120-acre public park in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, in the suburb and former village of Marton, England.
Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow, originally Heinrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Bölckow, was a Victorian industrialist and Member of Parliament, acknowledged as being one of the founders of modern Middlesbrough.
The High Sheriff of Cleveland was a High Sheriff title which was in existence from 1974 until 1996, covering Cleveland, England.
Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd was an English ironmaking and mining company founded in 1864, based on the partnership since 1840 of its two founders, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan. The firm drove the dramatic growth of Middlesbrough and the production of coal and iron in the north-east of England in the 19th century. The two founding partners had an exceptionally close working relationship which lasted until Vaughan's death.
The Museum of British Surfing is a Museum based in Braunton, Devon; the museum contains exhibits relating to the history of surfing in the United Kingdom.
Middlesbrough started as a Benedictine priory on the south bank of the River Tees, its name possibly derived from it being midway between the holy sites of Durham and Whitby. The earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name is "Mydilsburgh", containing the term burgh.