About Captain Cook Schoolroom Museum
The Captain Cook Schoolroom Museum is in the heart of Great Ayton, housed in a building once used as a charity school founded by Michael Postgate, in 1704. It is run by volunteers and entry is free.
It tells the story of Cook's early life from when his father moved to Aireyholme Farm in Great Ayton in 1736 and how his education was sponsored in the village school by Thomas Skottowe, the Lord of the Manor. The museum features a reconstruction of an early eighteenth century schoolroom of the type that Cook would have attended.
His later life in Staithes and then Whitby and his voyages up and down the east coast on the coal ships, before joining the navy and his subsequent famous round the world voyages are covered in an audio/visual presentation.
Besides an informative display about Great Ayton, the museum links out to the wider village where visitors will find a bronze statue of Cook on the High Green and to the commemorative garden at the location where Cook's father built a family cottage. In 1933 the cottage was sold and shipped to Australia where it was rebuilt in Fitzroy Park in Melbourne.