A voyage of discovery (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

A voyage of discovery

9:29am Monday 19th December 2011 in Days Out By Helen Mead

Captain James Cook is most commonly associated with Whitby. Every year thousands of people visit the coastal town to admire his statue on the cliff top overlooking the harbour.

But the navigator and explorer’s associations with Yorkshire span a wider area. He was born in 1728 in the North Yorkshire village of Marton, now a suburb of Middlesbrough. The family later moved 12 miles away to Airey Holme Farm in the village of Great Ayton, where his father’s employer paid for him to attend the local school.

This attractive village is where we began our day out, with a visit to the Captain Cook Schoolroom Museum. Housed in a building once used as a charity school founded by local landowner Michael Postgate, it was here that the young James Cook received his early education.

Small but packed with interest, the museum contains a reconstruction of a schoolroom from the early 18th century as well as interactive displays about Cook’s early life and education. Children can sit next to James for a lesson in the schoolroom or stand next to Captain Cook on board ship and learn how to use a ship’s sextant. You can follow his voyages and see how he changed the map of the world. The museum is currently closed for winter, reopening in April – but there is plenty to see and do in the vicinity, much with Cook associations.

Centred on the banks of the River Leven, Great Ayton has a varied collection of shops and two village greens – one of which is home to a sculpture of Cook aged 16. He stands looking towards Staithes, where he moved at that age to be apprenticed to a grocer and haberdasher. It is believed this is where he first felt the lure of the sea.

His parents’ cottage – built by Cook’s father after he retired from farm work – was bought in 1933 by Australian business magnate Sir Russell Grimwade and moved brick by brick to Melbourne, Australia, as a centenary gift to the people of the state of Victoria. It is certainly a loss to Great Ayton, and people still question how its removal was permitted, but it is now a major tourist attraction in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Park.

Another popular attraction in Great Ayton, and just a stone’s throw from the museum, is Suggitt’s ice cream shop. Dating back to the 1920s, jars of sweets lie alongside a cafe in the style of a small American diner, where tubs of the famous Suggitt’s ices can be enjoyed. My daughters love visiting after a walk, but this time we decided to pop in for refreshments before heading for the hills.

These too have many associations with Captain Cook. For pleasure, the young lad would climb nearby Roseberry Topping. A distinctive feature of the landscape, its 1,049ft (329m) summit has a half-cone shape with a jagged edge, which has led to many comparisons with the much higher Matterhorn in Switzerland. This peculiar shape is due to a geological fault and mining collapse early in the 20th century.

The hill was held in special regard by the Vikings who settled in the area in large numbers during the Medieval period and gave the area many of its place names. Two years ago, the hill was spectacularly lit up as part of an event to celebrate the Viking heritage of the area.

Walkers can ascend Roseberry Topping – which is now managed by the National Trust – by a variety of routes, some more arduous than others. We opted to walk through the woods at the base of one side of the hill, and then ascend past a historic shooting box, a remnant of the days when the hill was privately owned and part of a game estate.

It is not a long climb, and less than an hour after setting off we were almost up. It was blustery at the top, so we sat close to the cairn and admired the view. To the east, lay the Tees estuary and above it Middlesbrough. And to the south and west the moors stretched across to neighbouring hills. It was good to think that Captain Cook had stood on that very spot and looked out to sea – perhaps that is what originally inspired him to take to the ocean.

From the summit another Cook memorial can be seen. Captain Cook’s Monument was built on windswept Easby Moor in memory of the explorer.

Easy to access – a 15-minute stroll up a gentle gradient from a roadside parking area – the spot provides panoramic views along the curve of the Cleveland hills down to Great Ayton, across to Roseberry Topping and deep into the North York Moors.

The scenery is spectacular, in winter as well as summer, and a walk up either Roseberry Topping or Easby Moor is bracing and hugely enjoyable. Those wanting to stretch their legs a little further can head up Roseberry Topping and walk across to Captain Cook’s Momument. Or the other way around.

Either way, remember to read the plaque on the large stone memorial. It hails “a man of nautical knowledge inferior to none” and adds, “long will the name of Captain Cook stand out amongst the most celebrated and most admired benefactors of the human race”.

FACTFILE:
Great Ayton, Roseberry Topping and Captain Cook’s Momument in North Yorkshire are around 15 miles from Middlesbrough. The area is around a 90-minute drive from Bradford.