It is typified by its tree lined streets, rows of Victorian terrace housing, turn of the century timber cottages and corner pubs.

The suburb is represented sporting-wise by Cooks Hill United Football Club (the flagship being the NewFM 1st Div.

The Brown Snakes were established in 2007 as a youth-oriented senior Rugby club and have Empire Park, Bar Beach as their home ground.

Cooks Hill United Football Club plays its NewFM & Zone League One games at the Newcastle Athletics Field.

On Sunday 16 September 2012, Cooks Hill made it a '3peat' when they won their third Major Semi final in a row beating Warners Bay 0–1 at Jack McLaughlan Oval, Edgeworth.

Samuel Cook was originally from Warleggan, Cornwall, England, a short distance from Lampen Farm, St Neot, home of the Dangar family.

Samuel Cook remembered Tamworth as having "6 or 8 houses" when he arrived, and once the landlock controlled by the AAC was lifted by government legislation, he stayed long enough to help it develop into a thriving town.

Cook owned shares in the Nemingha Gold Mining Company during the gold rush, and is recorded as having "over 400 horses, 180 breeding mares, 5 stallions and several stallion foals" described as "thoroughbred, crossbred and English roadsters commanding the best price" on the Nemingha property.

Two years after Samuel's death, Cooks Hill School opened in 1885 formalising the name of the suburb.

Low-lying ground and swamp was found in abundance locally, the market gardens near Marketown on Parry St often flooded due to poor drainage into Cottage Creek, and so elevated land was of some value.