Cat House

According to Pevsner, “The Buildings of England”, the Cat House, originally two cottages, was built in 1793 and has been altered and added to in subsequent years. The cottage is described as “Gothic” in style. Built of red brick, castellated, with a large church-like window and prominent porch supported on iron pillars enclosing a heavy, studded door. The north gable end window has been both fake and part-glazed. It seems likely that there was a building on this site prior to this and that it was an “ecclesiastical edifice”.

Mary Alice Spencer Warwick reported in 1908 that the “walls are of immense thickness being in some places nine feet deep. A well, 40 feet deep,  exists in the centre of the house, while on the roof is a spacious place capable of concealing any number of kegs of brandy.” 

In 1729, according to the Colchester Church Book, Brother Rootsey, a Baptist minister, was sent from Colchester to Woolverstone. On 22^nd Nov 1757 a humble Baptist church was formed in Woolverstone. A few months later, April 1758, Samuel Sowden was invited to become their pastor. “He preached in a little house on the Berners Estate and used to baptise at the Cat House.” 

This “little house” could well have been located on Meeting House Field at the eastern end of the village where a small field and ½ acre yard with barn existed. This land was  eventually sold to Charles Berners by Elizabeth Paine. The Cat House was also used for services and baptism.

Mary Berners (née Bendysh) used to go to these meetings: ”She preserved for them the greatest order and decorum; almost the greatest kindness she could have shown them”. This may have put her at odds with her husband’s more conformist leanings.

After her death in 1782, the place of meeting was taken from them and a new church was built at Stoke Green in Ipswich. 

According to legend, the building was named The Cat House in honour of a former owner who was sympathetic to smugglers on the river carrying contraband. His favourite cat died, he had it stuffed and placed it on a windowsill. When the cat was visible in the window from the river it signalled that the coast was clear of Excise Men.

While the Berners were law abiding people, that smuggling occurred is indisputable. In August 1830, the Ipswich Journal reported that: “75 tubs of Foreign Brandy and Geneva were seized by the officers of Excise of this town, in a cave near the Cat House, Woolverstone Park.” 

“Woolverstone Park, with its thick copses and stately trees, whose roots reached, in snaky windings, to the very shore, was now the range along which the barque skirted till it came opposite the white cottage, which stands on a small green opening, or lawn, slanting down to the river. The park boat was moored against the stairs, and a single light burned against the window, at which a white cat might be seen to be sitting. It was a favourite cat of the gamekeeper’s, which had accidentally been killed in a rabbit-trap and, being stuffed, was placed in the window of the cottage. Visible as it always was in the same place, in the broad day and in the clear moonlight, the sailors on the river always called that dwelling by the name of the Cat House; by which it is known at the present day. High above it might be seen the mansion, shining in the moonbeam, and many lights burning in its various apartments a sign of the hospitality of W. Berners, Esquire, the lord of that beautiful domain.”

From “The History of Margaret Catchpole; a Suffolk Girl” by Rev. Richard Cobbold. (1846) 

Charles Mills, captain of the Berners’ schooner, Egret, lived here for over 40 years. 

At the time of sale of Woolverstone Estate in 1937, the Cat House was described as consisting of “four rooms and a bathroom, currently under the occupation of the sub-agent.”

It is now under the ownership of Marina Developments Ltd. (Woolverstone) and following refurbishment and underpinning, is available for hire. Details can be fond here: https://www.mdlmarinas.co.uk/holiday-parks/woolverstone-marina-and-lodge-park/

You can find more information about the Cat House here: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1281385?section=official-list-entry