The cattery is a family business which was originally set up over 40 years ago by Violet Hawkes.  Anne Hawkes has taken over the reins and lives on site.  She has been very involved in the everyday running of the business over the last 20 years.

Chris Hearn is our cattery manager.  After graduating from the University of Sussex in 2009 Chris travelled to Canada and completed a four month internship at a wildlife rehabilitation centre where he cared for sick, injured, or orphaned raccoons, skunks, opossums, rabbits, deer, beavers and even a bobcat named Hoover. Upon returning to the UK Chris volunteered his time at the Cats Protection National Adoption Centre in Sussex and eventually gained full time employment at the centre and continued to care for and re-home cats for a further two and a half years. Chris has been manager at the Country Cattery since 2014 and enjoys getting to know all the visitors to the cattery, human and feline!

We have many regular customers who have been coming here for over 20 years. Some with the same cat- our oldest regular visitor came on holidays each year for 22 years. Our youngest visitors were born here! We really enjoy getting to know our visiting cats individually, and also our regular contact with their families.

We encourage all potential new customers to visit us before booking their cats in. Visitors are welcome during our usual opening hours, without any advance notice.