Honorary status for Captain Cook's cottage

Captain Cook’s famous Yorkshire cottage, which was dismantled brick by brick and shipped to Australia, has been made an honorary member of Welcome to Yorkshire.

The house is now open as a tourist attraction, complete with an English cottage garden and furnishings representative of the period.

The two-storey home was originally built in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, for the explorer’s parents in 1755.

In 1933 it was bought by an Australian businessman for £800 - the highest local bidder offered just £300.

The cottage was then dismantled piece by piece and packed into 253 cases and 40 barrels before being shipped more than 10,000 miles from the Port of Hull to Australia.

Cuttings from ivy plants in the garden were also shipped across and re-planted near the house.

A site in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens was chosen for the cottage’s new home and builders spent six months rebuilding the house as close to the original as possible.

The famous pink plaque that all Welcome to Yorkshire members are given has been presented to the curators at Cook’s Cottage in Melbourne and will now be displayed on the building for visitors around the world to see.

Sir Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: