LUCKY cat bones, the base of a very large wine bottle, and scraps of leather - all dating back to the 18th century - have been found in excavations at the historic Captain Cook Memorial Museum at Whitby.

The museum is about to renovate an historic cottage alongside the main building to provide more exhibition space and better facilities for the 15,000 visitors it attracts annually, and has been awarded £347,500 by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Exploratory work for the renovation has revealed, for the first time since it was covered over in the 1700s, the slipway or 'staithe' at the back of the quayside building in Grape Lane.

Visitors nowadays see only a level back yard, which in Cook's day would have sloped down into the harbour.

Cook lodged at the house when he was apprenticed to well-to-do Quaker shipowner John Walker.

Now a team, led by York archaeologist Colin Briden, has dug down one metre to the slipway, and found old clay pipes - thought to have been smoked by sailors - in harbour rubble used to raise and level it.

This was carried out when an old range of buildings at the back of the shipowner's house, including a kitchen, was demolished to make way for a larger cottage alongside. The slipway would have been used to take small boats from the house to the colliers - coal ships - moored in the upper harbour.

Mr Briden also discovered a well-preserved brick floor laid in an elaborate herring-bone pattern, and a heap of coal, in the area that would have been the kitchen which was demolished to make way for the cottage.

The cat bones, wine bottle and scraps of leather were also found in the kitchen.

Mr Briden, who describes the finds as "very exciting", believes the cat bones may have been put there by the original builders for luck.

He said: "The most interesting thing about this excavation is that we have an 18th century inventory and we have found the room it describes - that is most unusual."

Dr Sophie Forgan, chairman of the Cook Museum Trust, said: "The excavations have helped us put pieces of the puzzle together and confirmed that the house where Cook lodged as an apprentice had a commercial aspect, as well as being a comfortable home for a successful shipping family."

Updated: 11:15 Thursday, July 26, 2001