About The Club

The first meeting of the Cumberland Cat Club was held in March 1978. Mrs Marie McAdam was appointed Chairman and the committee consisted of ten members.

A series of fund-raising events were held over the next two years when the Club decided to hold a cat exhibition at the Cumberland Agricultural Show in July 1978. The Club became affiliated to the GCCF at that time and a licence was granted for the exhibition which totalled twelve cats. The Club followed up this first exhibition the following year when twenty cats were exhibited.

The first exemption show was held in March 1982 with the second in March 1983. In 1984 the Club held two Sanction Shows – the first in March and the second on the second Saturday in October – the latter being the regular date for the Club’s Championship Shows, the first being held in 1985. Mrs Pat Botting was appointed as Show Manager and she continued in the post until her sad death in 1989.

After a few years as Assistant Show Manager, Jenny Fleming was appointed as Show Manager in 1994 – a post which she still holds. The Show has been held in many venues including the old Market Hall in Carlisle and The Sands Centre in Carlisle when the Market Hall was redeveloped. Unfortunately the Sands Centre became too expensive and the attraction of a 3 day badminton competition on the same weekend for the local authority resulted in us looking elsewhere. A show at the secondary school in Penrith caused us several problems, not least being the inability of getting the penning company vehicles to the sports hall because of a low pedestrian bridge, and we finally settled at The William Howard Centre in Brampton – another secondary school with a large sports hall and gymnasium, where we have been for the last six years.