page_title: Cotswold Cottage, Maroon
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cotswold Cottage, Maroon / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Cotswold Cottage, 1891
context_page_description: Cotswold Cottage is a heritage-listed homestead at Boonah Road, Maroon, Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1888 to 1890s by Frederick William Cook and was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: Frederick William Cook built Cotswold Cottage in the Maroon district in stages between 1888 and the late 1890s, as his family's home. The former six-roomed stone and slab house is now a ruin.
  According to family descendants, Cook was a carpenter by trade who in 1878 emigrated to Australia from the Cotswolds in England under assisted passage. By 1883 he was working as a joiner in South Brisbane. In 1888 he took up selection 690 (160 acres (65 ha)) in the Maroon district near Boonah in southeast Queensland. Cook's brother, Thomas, took up several adjoining selections around the same time.
  The area had been long recognized for its fertile soil, but had been locked up in pastoral leases prior to the 1868 Crown Lands Act, which opened the land to closer settlement. The first selectors had arrived in the Boonah region in the 1870s and by the late 1880s Maroon had emerged as an agricultural community. Cook moved his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children from Brisbane to Maroon in June 1888. According to family descendants Cook built a slab hut close to the present location of the stone ruins to house the family while the stone and slab cottage was under construction, which also was commenced in 1888.
  Named Cotswold Cottage after Cook's home district in England, the walls of the residence were constructed from iron bark slabs and stone obtained from the property. To bind the stones, he used a mortar mix of clay and cow manure. Three open fireplaces were built into the stone walls. The cottage was constructed over a number of years beginning with the southern end of the house, now completely destroyed. A Bailiff of Crown Lands report dated 20 October 1893 notes that the house comprised four rooms. Further additions were built after this date, including a semi-detached living room. The extant wall is the remains of an internal southern wall of this room. C Gillies, FW Cook's great-granddaughter, described the house in its final form:
  In all the house measured 18.3 by 7.6 metres (60 ft × 25 ft). It consisted of two bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, sitting room and workshop. With the exception of the kitchen, all interior walls were painted with white wash, mixed with milk and tinted to the required colour. Fred painted a lino pattern on the floor of the dining room - this section of the house has now been demolished. The house was completely roofed with shingles, hand cut from timber standing on the property each one carefully trimmed and fitted into position. They measured 46 by 13 centimetres (18.1 in × 5.1 in) and were 1.3 centimetres (0.51 in) thick.
  The most unusual feature of the stone house was its windows. The glass used in many of them consisted of 15 by 10 centimetres (5.9 in × 3.9 in) lantern slide plates. Each plate was fitted into a miniature frame and these were then joined together to form a complete window.
  The above is consistent with an oral description provided by Cook's grandson, Lemuel Cook, and with the physical remnants on the site.
  On his selection FW Cook cultivated maize, potatoes and fruit, but was unable to support his family solely from the property. He also worked as a builder in the Maroon district, constructing many community buildings including the provisional school and its furniture.
  By February 1899 Cook was able to apply to purchase his selection and in June a Deed of Grant was issued in his name for Portion 72v, being agricultural selection 690.
  The property was transferred to Cook's son, Edgar, in June 1922. After FW Cook's death in 1937 the cottage fell into disrepair. In 1954, title to the property was transferred to James Weatherall, whose family had resided in the Maroon district since the late 19th century. No further use was made of the cottage.
caption: Cotswold Cottage, 1891
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