Yorkshire Traveller
Captain James Cook, R.N.
Grace
and James Cook had eight children.
Four died in childhood. Only the second son
James and his sisters Margaret and Christiana survived.
Cook's family moved from Marton, near Middlesbrough,
in 1736 when he was eight and he
spent most of his childhood in Great Ayton.
His school, now a museum, stands at the eastern
end of the High Street facing a waterfall.
The family cottage was dismantled and shipped to
Australia in 1934, but a monument marks its
site in Bridge Street.
Easby
moor, south-east of the village,
is crowned by a 51 foot monument to Captain
Cook.
Cook's sisters, Margaret married a man named Fleck of
Redcar, and Christiana married a fisherman named Cocker of
Staithes, where her father
James lived with
them.
Young
James Cook worked as a farm labourer like his
Father and then as an apprentice to a grocer in
Staithes.
However, at the age of 18 he found employment in
colliers
sailing out of Whitby, shipping coals from
the River Tyne to London.
The
Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is located within Stewart
Park
at Marton, the Museum stands near to the site
of the cottage where Cook was born.
At
Marske-by-sea, the tower of St. Germains Church
overlooks the grave of James Cook senior.
Mrs Grace Cook is buried with her five other children
at Great Ayton, near Middlesbrough.
In
Stockton-on-Tees Parish Church there is a memorial to
Captain James Cook and an altarpiece made of wood
from the Resolution, one of Captain Cook's ships.
Captain Cooks Monument, Whitby
HM BARK "ENDEAVOUR"
A
replica of Captain Cooks ship HM ENDEAVOUR received a
fantastic welcome from thousands of people as
she sailed into Whitby Harbour on Friday 9th May 1997
after sailing from Australia.
Escorted by the Whitby Lifeboat the Endeavour arrived
at it's "home" port where the original ship was built.
High Street, Robin Hoods Bay.
Robin
Hood's Bay a quiet, charming seaside village,
belies it's smuggling past.
At it's peak in the eighteenth century, the entire
population of Robin Hood's Bay, Staithes, Saltburn and
Runswick was thought to be involved in the smuggling of
silk,
brandy, gin, tobacco, tea, coffee, playing cards
chocolate, snuff and linen.
It is
said of the picturesque huddle of cottages that it was
once
possible to pass a bale of silk from house to house
the length of the village without going outside.
One can well believe it.
This
delightful village lies at the foot of a steep hill and is
an
absolute rabbit-warren of tiny streets and passageways
which you can wander around for hours, all well
preserved.
The Bay itself provides a lovely walk, and there's a
couple
of good pubs near the top of the slipway.
There's practically no parking in the village itself,
and visitors have to park at the top of the hill and walk
down
(and back up again, more to the point).
Robin Hoods Bay
Ravenscar, looking towards Robin Hoods Bay.
photograph reproduced by kind permission of DaveLawrance: dave@contact.demon.co.uk
Bempton Cliffs.
Further
south we arrive at the sea bird breeding grounds of
Bempton - the largest in the country with around
200,000 birds nesting precariously on and in the cliff
face.
The effects of wind and sea on the three miles (5 km)
of chalk cliffs have been to leave thousands of little
pockets in the near vertical face.
In these nest Britain's only gannets as well as
fulmars, kittiwakes, cormorants and many types of gull.
Well worth a visit unless you are seeking peace and
quiet!
Flamborough Head Lighthouse and Bay.
Flamborough
Head sticks out into the North Sea a short way
from Bempton with the lighthouse shown here
standing a prudent distance from the cliff edge.
Flamborough suffered in the past from marauding Vikings,
being sacked seven times over the centuries.
But eventually they decided to make themselves at
home here in whatever was left after their depredations,
and many of the local people are their
descendants.
Now let's continue and visit the Yorkshire coastline...
1950,s through to 2000
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Malcolm
mal@jupiter98.freeserve.co.uk
Date
Last Modified: 23/10/05