James Cook Snr brought his large family from Scotland in 1736 where he had secured more reliable employment on estate farms. As a bonus, he could send young James to school at his employer’s expense. ![]()
Navigator-explorer Capt James Cook (1728-79) never lived in the cottage when his parents James and Grace built it in 1755 in Great Ayton village, North Yorkshire. [1755 was inscribed in the cottage’s stone-work]. The lad had started his sea-faring apprenticeship in that year, even though he’d have stayed with his parents on trips home, enjoying fishing in the River Leven. So this connection to the Cook family home was enough to link the cottage and young James.
Leap forward to June 1933, when Great Ayton villagers crammed into the Buck Hotel for the auction for Cooks’ Cottage. The house’s legacy of being connected, however distantly, to one of Britain’s most famous explorers meant that many people arrived to witness its fate. Originally Cooks’ Cottage had been placed under strict conditions that any buyer could not remove the building from England, although this was later waived at the auction. Later the Yorkshire cottage was sold to Melbourne scientist and philanthropist Sir Russell Grimwade for £800.
Even in the 1930s, not everyone was happy about Cooks’ Cottage being removed from its Great Ayton site. Some locals complained that the house belonged to British history. Others were excited for the move, seeing it as a strengthened tie between the two British nations.
Then there was the job of dismantling the cottage. Each beam, rafter, flagstone and brick was individually numbered as it was painstakingly removed and placed into 253 wooden crates. Attention to detail was important: only the modern parts of the house were left behind eg a fireplace inglenook that had been built after the Cooks left. The crates were taken by a fleet of lorries to a train which delivered them to the port of Hull. There the Commonwealth and Dominion Liner Port Wellington was waiting.
The ship left port in Feb, carrying 16,851 ks from the Cook Cottage to Australia. A site in the Fitzroy Gardens was selected to rebuild the cottage, where it went up brick-by-brick and opened to the public to mark Melbourne’s 100th centenary 1934. Construction work was completed in 6 months then the cottage was handed over to the Lord Mayor by Grimwade in Oct 1934 in time for the centenary ceremony. Combining modern interpretations of Capt Cook's adventures, original furniture, a lovely English cottage garden, volunteers in C18th costumes and a new museum in the stable. The Cottage was perfect when I visited (1958).
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Actually Capt Cook lived on his ship HM Endeavour and never actually lived anywhere on land. The closest he actually came to the future-city was from the deck of the Endeavour, a few ks from Point Hicks in Gippsland (which Cook named). Thus the cottage became a historical fluke, in a place with no connection to Melbourne, yet for decades successfully miscast as a nationalistic colonial icon.
Capt Cook's Cottage
transplanted brick by brick to Melbourne in 1934
Navigator-explorer Capt James Cook (1728-79) never lived in the cottage when his parents James and Grace built it in 1755 in Great Ayton village, North Yorkshire. [1755 was inscribed in the cottage’s stone-work]. The lad had started his sea-faring apprenticeship in that year, even though he’d have stayed with his parents on trips home, enjoying fishing in the River Leven. So this connection to the Cook family home was enough to link the cottage and young James.
Leap forward to June 1933, when Great Ayton villagers crammed into the Buck Hotel for the auction for Cooks’ Cottage. The house’s legacy of being connected, however distantly, to one of Britain’s most famous explorers meant that many people arrived to witness its fate. Originally Cooks’ Cottage had been placed under strict conditions that any buyer could not remove the building from England, although this was later waived at the auction. Later the Yorkshire cottage was sold to Melbourne scientist and philanthropist Sir Russell Grimwade for £800.
Even in the 1930s, not everyone was happy about Cooks’ Cottage being removed from its Great Ayton site. Some locals complained that the house belonged to British history. Others were excited for the move, seeing it as a strengthened tie between the two British nations.
Then there was the job of dismantling the cottage. Each beam, rafter, flagstone and brick was individually numbered as it was painstakingly removed and placed into 253 wooden crates. Attention to detail was important: only the modern parts of the house were left behind eg a fireplace inglenook that had been built after the Cooks left. The crates were taken by a fleet of lorries to a train which delivered them to the port of Hull. There the Commonwealth and Dominion Liner Port Wellington was waiting.
The ship left port in Feb, carrying 16,851 ks from the Cook Cottage to Australia. A site in the Fitzroy Gardens was selected to rebuild the cottage, where it went up brick-by-brick and opened to the public to mark Melbourne’s 100th centenary 1934. Construction work was completed in 6 months then the cottage was handed over to the Lord Mayor by Grimwade in Oct 1934 in time for the centenary ceremony. Combining modern interpretations of Capt Cook's adventures, original furniture, a lovely English cottage garden, volunteers in C18th costumes and a new museum in the stable. The Cottage was perfect when I visited (1958).
Original 18th century furniture
The loss of Cooks’ Cottage to Great Ayton was quickly remedied with a gift from the Australian government. An obelisk now stands on the original site of Capt Cook’s Cottage, made out of Point Hicks granite. NB this was the first land Cook aw on his 1770 Australian trip!
So why was the cottage erected in the Fitzroy Gardens if Cook was never in Melbourne? Partially because the area was surrounded by large shady European trees, historian Linda Young noted that journalist Hermon Gill created a Cook–Melbourne connection. It was argued that the first Australian coastline, observed by Cook’s 1770 expedition, was here. Since Melbourne was about to mark 100 years of settlement in 1934, Gill suggested that Melbourne was the proud guardian of the cottage of the man who had made the centenary possible! It’s now a museum to colonial history.
As the cottage structure had been altered considerably by a succession of British owners following the Cook family's occupation, its Australian assemblers had to restore the cottage as accurately as records would permit to its mid C18th appearance.
But before it had even been moved, there were discussions in Melbourne about where to rebuild Cook’s cottage. Some citizens didn’t want an unpretentious little building without any architectural value stuck beside the stately national buildings in Swanston St. But by the time Cooks’ Cottage appeared in Fitzroy Gardens in Oct 1934, the public seemed to have warmed to the building: a large crowd watched the centennial ceremony. Mrs Dixon of Great Ayton presented the original key of the cottage to Grimwade.
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Today, Cooks’ Cottage remains open, looking very much like it did back in Great Ayton in the 1700s. The exterior shows a reddish brown brick cottage, reminiscent of many in the English countryside, complete with a customised, traditional English garden. The herb and vegetable garden behind the house has been planted as it would have been at the time. In C18th, families relied on home-grown produce for their food supply. Poultry shared the space with vegetables, mixed fruits and flowers. Most families had a good knowledge of herbs uses for cooking and medicine, using them to cure illnesses and injuries. Cook prevented scurvy in his crews by including scurvy grass/New Zealand spinach and sauerkraut.
Critique
Recently the Capt Cook story is coming under criticism. The cottage was one of a few colonial monuments vandalised on Australia Day, as public opinion of the once legendary Capt Cook changed; more details of his interactions with First Nations people have emerged. Some First Nations people described the cottage as an oppressive space with a lack of information about the illegal treatment of Indigenous Australians by white settlers. Opponents pulled down statues of Capt Cook because the statues presented an image of heroism within the colonial narrative, without recognising the colonial violence that these men promoted and committed.
The English garden that accompanies Capt Cook’s House was designed before the cottage’s reconstruction here, and the sweet peas, hollyhocks, mignonettes and other English flowers were NOT grown in Yorkshire. Rather they came from nurseries in Melbourne. Only the ivy that climbs on the exterior walls was brought from Great Ayton along with the dismantled house, still living in the warm soil.
Fortunately the cottage has undergone two restorations. The first was in the late 1950s and the second in 1978, when a thorough effort was made to investigate and restore the building, furnish it with contemporary C18th materials, and surround it with an C18th garden.
Photo credits: ralwaightravel
So why was the cottage erected in the Fitzroy Gardens if Cook was never in Melbourne? Partially because the area was surrounded by large shady European trees, historian Linda Young noted that journalist Hermon Gill created a Cook–Melbourne connection. It was argued that the first Australian coastline, observed by Cook’s 1770 expedition, was here. Since Melbourne was about to mark 100 years of settlement in 1934, Gill suggested that Melbourne was the proud guardian of the cottage of the man who had made the centenary possible! It’s now a museum to colonial history.
As the cottage structure had been altered considerably by a succession of British owners following the Cook family's occupation, its Australian assemblers had to restore the cottage as accurately as records would permit to its mid C18th appearance.
But before it had even been moved, there were discussions in Melbourne about where to rebuild Cook’s cottage. Some citizens didn’t want an unpretentious little building without any architectural value stuck beside the stately national buildings in Swanston St. But by the time Cooks’ Cottage appeared in Fitzroy Gardens in Oct 1934, the public seemed to have warmed to the building: a large crowd watched the centennial ceremony. Mrs Dixon of Great Ayton presented the original key of the cottage to Grimwade.
Statue of Capt Cook in
the herb garden behind the cottage
Guides in 18th century clothes
Today, Cooks’ Cottage remains open, looking very much like it did back in Great Ayton in the 1700s. The exterior shows a reddish brown brick cottage, reminiscent of many in the English countryside, complete with a customised, traditional English garden. The herb and vegetable garden behind the house has been planted as it would have been at the time. In C18th, families relied on home-grown produce for their food supply. Poultry shared the space with vegetables, mixed fruits and flowers. Most families had a good knowledge of herbs uses for cooking and medicine, using them to cure illnesses and injuries. Cook prevented scurvy in his crews by including scurvy grass/New Zealand spinach and sauerkraut.
Critique
Recently the Capt Cook story is coming under criticism. The cottage was one of a few colonial monuments vandalised on Australia Day, as public opinion of the once legendary Capt Cook changed; more details of his interactions with First Nations people have emerged. Some First Nations people described the cottage as an oppressive space with a lack of information about the illegal treatment of Indigenous Australians by white settlers. Opponents pulled down statues of Capt Cook because the statues presented an image of heroism within the colonial narrative, without recognising the colonial violence that these men promoted and committed.
The English garden that accompanies Capt Cook’s House was designed before the cottage’s reconstruction here, and the sweet peas, hollyhocks, mignonettes and other English flowers were NOT grown in Yorkshire. Rather they came from nurseries in Melbourne. Only the ivy that climbs on the exterior walls was brought from Great Ayton along with the dismantled house, still living in the warm soil.
Fortunately the cottage has undergone two restorations. The first was in the late 1950s and the second in 1978, when a thorough effort was made to investigate and restore the building, furnish it with contemporary C18th materials, and surround it with an C18th garden.
Photo credits: ralwaightravel