Club History

Club History Page

The Cambria Cat Club was formed in May 1974 to encourage and promote a greater understanding in the welfare, breeding and exhibiting of cats.

We started with just twelve members and held jumble sales and sold tea with home made cakes to make money for stationary and printing of membership forms and rule books. We now have about 200 plus members from all over Great Britain, some of whom have been with us since the year we began.

Our first exemption and sanction shows were held in the delightful Barry Memorial Hall but we needed a much larger hall for championship shows, so we moved to the Sophia Gardens Hall for our last sanction show and booked the hall for our first championship show. Unfortunately during a very heavy snowfall, the roof of the hall collapsed and we had to move the show to the Splott Leisure Centre, where we stayed for three years.

During this time we had seen that a large hall was being built in Newport and while work was still going on, we were taken on a tour of the site (wearing hard hats) we then made the first ever booking for the Newport Centre and hoped it would be ready by October.

It is at the Newport Centre that we hold our all breed Championship shows on the second Saturday of October. There is a balcony above the hall on which there is a range of 'catty' and other craft stalls and just across the road from the hall is the main shopping centre of Newport with its excellent market and pedestrian only shopping areas. There is also a wonderful Sculpture Trial, leaflets for which are given out at the show. So there is plenty for the family to enjoy when the hall is closed for judging. The Newport Centre is two minutes by car from J25a on the M4 and the railway station is a ten-minute walk.