Aristocats pull in stately home crowds
THERE was a time when it was the Rubens in the library and the Chippendale in the dining room that pulled in the visitors. But stately homes have hit on altogether more lively attractions.
Forget the antiques; meet Maisie, Craig and Gina – the cats now drawing the public to the nation’s palaces, homes and halls.
Growing numbers are being enticed to visit by the prospect of spotting the feline-in-residence wondering through the grounds or lounging on a bench, it seems.
In several cases the cats have become social media sensations, with younger visitors desperate to meet them in real life after seeing them on internet platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The National Trust said having cats around imbues a property with a sense of homeliness appreciated by visitors.
“We know that several of our places, such as Gunby, have seen an increase in visitors coming specifically to see the cats in residence,” a spokesman for the trust told The Sunday Telegraph. “We hope that they come away from their visit having not only spotted the famous cats themselves, but also discovering the many stories that lie behind the places in our care.”
Gunby Hall’s two cats, Craig and Committee – who adopted the Lincolnshire home as their own a few years ago – have more than 6,500 followers on Instagram, more than any other single account for a National Trust property, as well as 2,000 each on Facebook and Twitter. It began when Astrid Gatenby, the hall’s visitor experience manager, hit on the idea of taking photographs of the pair roaming the grounds and posting them online.
The number of visitors has grown tenfold in the past five years, and Ms Gatenby credits them with much of the property’s recent success.
It has been a similar story at the Bishop’s Palace in Wells, where the eightyear-old cat called Maisie has her own Facebook page.
Maisie’s adventures around the 13thcentury palace have now been chronicled
in a book, The Real Life Adventures of Maisie the Palace Cat.
Other stately home cats include Gina, at the National Trust’s Wimpole Estate, near Cambridge, who, according to Your Cat magazine, regularly appears on visitors’ Twitter pages.
In Kent, Chartwell, the former home of Winston Churchill, continued to have a cat in residence following the wartime prime minister’s death in 1965, when it was bequeathed to the National Trust by his widow Clementine.
At the request of Churchill’s family the cats are always named Jock, after his beloved pet. The current incumbent, Jock VI, has had more than 2,000 Facebook “likes” and even features on his own calendar.