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Great Ayton - enclosed land beside water.Great Ayton is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England, on the edge of the North York Moors. It lies 7 miles (11.3 km) southeast of Middlesbrough and 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Stokesley on the border with the unitary authorities of Redcar and Cleveland and Middlesbrough. According to the 2001 census, it has a population of 4,570.
The village was the boyhood home of Captain Cook, the British explorer and navigator, who was born in nearby Marton. James Cook and his family moved to the village when he was eight years old and lived there until he was sixteen. James' father, James Senior, was a Scottish migrant farm labourer who was married to Grace, a local Yorkshire woman; he had moved to the village to take up a position on one of the local farms. His employer, one Thomas Skottowe, financed the younger James' schooling. After completing this tuition, James stayed on at the farm for several years helping out his father (who was now farm manager), before leaving in 1745 to take up an apprenticeship at a haberdasher and grocery store 20 miles (32 km) away in the fishing village of Staithes, near Whitby.
In the 18th and 19th centuries Great Ayton was a centre for the industries of weaving, tanning, brewing, and tile making: subsequently whinstone was also quarried from the Cleveland Dyke. It was home to the Great Ayton Friends' School (Quaker) from 1841 until it closed in 1997.
The village is served by Great Ayton railway station on the Esk Valley Line.
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