Stewart Park, Middlesbrough

Stewart Park is a 120-acre public park in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, in the suburb and former village of Marton, England.

It holds a Green Flag Award from the Civic Trust. The Middlesbrough campus of Askham Bryan College and the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum are within its grounds.

The park was the estate of Henry Bolckow one of Middlesbrough's ironmasters and the borough's first mayor. Bolckow landscaped the estate and in 1858 built Marton Hall in the estate. To indicate the site of the cottage where Captain James Cook was born he had erected a pink granite vase still present today.

The estate was eventually bought by Councillor Thomas Dormand Stewart, in 1924, for the people of Middlesbrough. Stewart intended it to be "a public possession, open and accessible to all the people, at all times".^{[citation needed]} Stewart's Park was officially opened to the public on 23 May 1928.

After the Second World War, Marton Hall stood empty for many years in a state of disrepair. In January 1959, the Borough engineer, A Kenyon, stated in a report, "The Hall....was of no wide historic or architectural value" and that renovations would cost in the region of £25,000. The council decided to demolish the building.

Work to demolish the Hall started in May 1960, but on 6 June a fire broke out and tore through the building. The ten fire appliances sent to tackle fire were hampered by the lack of water supply in the area, and the building was destroyed. The hall's conservatory continued to be open to the public for a number of years, but was eventually demolished in the mid-1990s. A stone loggia next to the museum is all that is left of the hall. The remaining Victorian estate buildings were later utilised as park depot buildings and council offices.

The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum (opened October 1978) is also within the park, which was built over the eastern part of Marton. In September 1998, an archaeological survey showed evidence of this part of Marton. In 2003, the eastern part of Marton village (misleadingly called "East Marton" as if it was a separate village) was the subject of Channel 4's archaeological television programme Time Team, presented by Tony Robinson.

The park covers about 120 acres (0.5 km²) and consists mainly of mature woodland and arboretum on the south side, with open parkland on the northern side. There are two lakes, which are the home to Canada and greylag geese, moorhens, coots and various types of duck. A pets' corner houses several types of domesticated animals: fallow deer, highland cattle, llamas, goats, peacocks, pheasants, rabbits and guinea pigs.