Captain Cook country.(Birthplace Museum)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 27-AUG-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

There's an irritating tendency by some local authorities to follow the deplorable example set by the Local Government Act of 1972 and give madeup names to large slabs of countryside. 'James Herriot Country', 'Catherine Cookson Country', 'Poldark Country' and the like.

There is some excuse for 'Captain Cook Country', though. It gives a name to an area robbed of its historical identity by the Act. This was one of the great Ridings of Yorkshire, now suburbanised into 'Cleveland', with the sprawling modern town of Middlesbrough at its heart. To be fair, it is an area of contrast so great as to defy classification: industrial complexes arise out of rich farmland; suburban estates sprawl a stone's throw from 18th-century parkland; the...

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