The heroes of British cheese

Randolph Hodgson, who took over Neal’s Yard Dairy soon after it was established in the late 1970s, is widely recognised as central to the development of Britain’s artisan cheese industry, visiting cheesemakers every few weeks and fighting the corner of the country’s smallest and most vulnerable producers. Like James Aldridge, he took on the uninformed but powerful food hygiene regulators who were heavily pressurising traditional producers to pasteurise their milk and replace their natural aging rooms with plastic and steel. He reportedly offered to buy Mrs Kirkham’s entire Lancashire cheese output in a (successful) effort to stop her pasteurising. Keen to encourage people to share their knowledge, he established the Specialist Cheesemakers Association in 1990 to tackle the many threats to artisan production, lobby Whitehall for more informed regulation and bring solitary artisans together in a network of support. The association now represents nearly 200 farmhouse producers.

After failing to persuade Stilton makers to allow raw milk to be used in their cheese, he established Stichelton Dairy, together with Joe Schneider, reviving traditional ‘Stilton’. Neal’s Yard Dairy is now one of the world’s great cheese shops, stocking around seventy farmhouse cheeses that are refined and matured in their cavernous Bermondsey aging rooms, with a success built on quality and service rather than turnover and growth. In 2007, he received an OBE for his contribution to the British cheese industry.

Farmhouse cheese production had ceased in Scotland by the 1970s, a situation that prevailed until Humphrey Errington’s sterling efforts bore fruit. Determined to make his gorgeous blue sheep’s milk cheeses, based on old recipes and regional research, he fought Clydesdale Council at great personal expense, winning the right for him – and the others that followed ­­– to craft unpasteurised Scottish cheese. Robin Congdon, too, contributed to the success of artisan sheep’s milk blues in the UK, pioneering their production south of the border.

There are so many more who deserve a place in this roll call. Mary Holbrook – the godmother of British goat cheese – whose cheeses were crafted with painstaking research and years of experimentation. Families like the Applebys and Montgomerys, who maintained traditional methods of producing Britain’s famous territorial cheeses when they were all but forgotten. The countless other small producers and cheese refiners, continuing their great work, while yet others have passed away.

I’ll leave the last word to Andy Swinscoe, the energetic young cheesemonger who is building his Yorkshire Dales business on the shoulders of these dedicated artisans. ‘If people continue to talk about and champion farm-made cheese then I think it will continue to grow – do your research and try and find 'proper' artisan cheese. It helps keep small farms viable, has a fascinating story – and tastes great too!’