Captain Cook Schoolroom Museum
Description:
The Museum is at 101 High Street, Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, TS9 6NB. Nearby is a statue of the young James Cook (see the memorial ‘High Green, Great Ayton’).
The displays illustrate images reflecting England’s cultural and economic evolution, and Cook’s life within the national context, especially his boyhood at Great Ayton.
The Museum features a life-size figure of James Cook by Bob Wakefield, the model for this being Tom Hollins, aged 10, a local boy, and the centrepiece of the museum features a recreation of the schoolroom, of the time of Cook.
Other rooms have displays of the village history, and Cook’s voyages, and career, and feature touchscreens and an audio trail.
The Museum caters for school visits, and an education pack is available to support teachers of key stages one and two.
There is a shop, selling gifts and books, and a lift provides easy access to the Museum.
The Museum is managed by a Charitable Trust, and staffed by volunteers. It has a website, with visiting details, and is on Facebook and Twitter.
History:
The school was built in 1704 by Michael Postgate, a local landowner, who founded this as a charity school. It was known as the ‘Postgate School’.
Postgate built a single room, and chambered it, and was for teaching 8 poor boys, the master was paid £4 annually.
Eventually, ceasing to pay the schoolmaster, Postgate gave the land and building to the village, the authorities maintained it.
In 1743, Rev Ralph Jackson reported that the school taught between twenty and thirty children, and charged a small fee.
James Cook attended the school between 1736 and 1740, until he was thirteen years of age.
The Postgate School continued, but in 1785 the building was pulled down, and an enlarged school built, together with a Poor House.
The bronze plaque on the outside wall was unveiled by Lady Normanby. in 1997.
In 1999 the Museum improvement programme took place at a cost of £190,000. This was funded by £140,000 from the Heritage Board of the National Lottery, and £50,000 was funded by the Trustees. The museum was officially reopened on 19th May 1999.
Again, in 2012, the museum was modernised and refurbished, with the help of another Lottery Grant.
Inscription:
Bronze plaque, by Nicholas Dimbleby, on the outside wall of the museum, at the top of which is a roundel showing James Cook.
CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, R.N., F.R.S.
1728-1779.
James Cook, circumnavigator and explorer, attended
this school which was founded by Michael Postgate
in 1704. Whilst in Great Ayton James Cook lived at
Aireyholme Farm on the slopes of Roseberry Topping
where his father worked for Thomas Skottowe
Lord of the Manor. Cook left Great Ayton
in 1745 for Staithes, subsequently becoming
apprenticed to John Walker, ship owner of Whitby.
This plaque showing the young Cook leaving Great Ayton
was executed by Nicholas Dimbleby
and erected by the Captain Cook Schoolroom Trust in 1997
GPS Coordinates: 54.491018, -1.140216
Registered Charity Numbers: 1097490 and 1165786
Heritage Listing: Historic England List Entry No. 1294452, first listed 23.6.1966, amended 8.5.1989.
References
Cook’s Log, page 1197, vol. 18, no. 4 (1995)
Cook’s Log, page 1425, vol. 20, no. 3 (1997)
Cook’s Log, page 1618, vol. 22, no. 2 (1999)
Cook’s Log, page 1646, vol. 22, no. 3 (1999)
Website: http://www.captaincookschoolroommuseum.co.uk/