Once famous for cheese, Oxfordshire is home to a few pioneers who are beginning to re-establish its reputation.
There are five artisan cheesemakers in the county. Three are located in the north west near the Cotswolds area of outstanding natural beauty and two in the southwest, in the North-Wessex Downs and the Chilterns (also AONBs). The locations are indicated in red on the map.
Banbury Cheese
There remains no tradition of cheesemaking in Oxfordshire; wars, industrialisation, regulation and dairy economics have seen to this. Banbury was once famous for its “rich cow’s milk cheese; about an inch in thickness with a thick rind.” Both hard and soft cheeses were made. Banbury cheese however slowly disappeared, and by the middle of the nineteenth century it had entirely gone, For a short time, in the 19th century, a very rich kind of late season cheese, was made after Michaelmas.
So Oxfordshire cheesemakers have a blank sheet when it comes to choosing a style to make. So far – this has been mainly fresh or soft goats cheeses and alpine style semi-hard cheeses from cow’s milk. Each of the producers and the cheeses that they make are explored further below.
In the following sections I have tried to catalog the cheeses produced by each dairy. There are many ways of classifying cheeses and I have used 2 typologies to categorise the cheeses produced i.e. “method of production” and ‘scale”.
The 4 Cheesemakers are:
- King Stone Dairy |Little Rollright
- Windrush Valley Goat Dairy | Windrush
- Norton & Yarrow Cheese | Nettlebed (Shillingford)
- Nettlebed Creamery | Nettlebed
King Stone Dairy | King Stone Farm, Little Rollright, Chipping Norton, OX7 5QB
2015
Farmhouse Cheese
David Jowett, Antony Curnow
name:
locative: named after the location of the dairy at Little Rollright.
origin:
In March 2015 cheesemaker David Jowett and farm-manager Antony Curnow began making cheese at King Stone Farm, in Little Rollright near Chipping Norton. They began to sell Rollright cheese in August 2015. The cheese dairy itself was built a few years ago by King Stone Farm manager, Antony Curnow, but lay in dormancy until 2015.
milk:
The Haine family, who own the farm, run a mixed herd of mainly Brown Swiss cows (a breed from the Swiss Alps whose milk is suited for cheesemaking). From spring through autumn these cows feed on clover and herb pasture and during the wetter months of the year, the herd is housed inside, and are fed on silage cut from the farm’s grass, and wheat supplemented by rolled beans from a neighbouring farm.
experience:
David’s career in cheese Started at Ram Hall Farm, where he spent six Weeks learning to make Berkswell cheese, and milking sheep. He had also been working part time at Paxton & Whitfield. He then spent a year studying at the School of Artisan Food on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire, during that time he worked at Stichelton, Neal’s Yard, Ram Hall Dairy and Jasper Hill in Vermont. Back to Paxton & Whitfield for a short time, and then cheesemaker for Gorsehill Abbey Farm in Worcestershire. He then set up a small scale artisan dairy “Jowett Cheese” in Stratford-upon-Avon, producing lactic and alpine-style raw milk cheeses. He is now at King Stone Dairy, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
Antony has worked with dairy cows since he was a boy in his native Cornwall. After agricultural college, he worked with a number of farms in Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Cheshire, He then spent four years in Wisconsin working on a Holstein breeding program. Antony developed the herd at King Stone Farm, through selective breeding with Brown Swiss cows, from a high-yielding black and white herd, to a herd of hardier animals providing great milk for cheesemaking.
featured cheese:
Rollright cheese is a mild brine washed rind semi-soft cheese, made from pasteurised milk
Rollright has a pink /apricot/peach coloured rind and a pale savoury/sweet buttery paste. Rollright has a delicate flavour without the pungent aromas of some wash rind cheeses.
At the 2016 Artisan Cheese Awards it won the Supreme Champion Award as well as winning Best Small Producer, Best Cow’s milk Cheese and and best new cheese.
Norton & Yarrow Cheese | Earth Trust Farm, Little Wittenham, Abingdon, OX14 4QZ
+44 7531 585847
2016
Farmhouse Cheese
Fraser Norton, Rachel Yarrow
name:
nominative: the dairy is named after the owner’s.
origin:
Former English teacher Rachel Yarrow is now a full-time farmer, while Frazer Norton has been working at international agricultural research organisation CABI, just outside Wallingford.
Both have farming heritage, his grandparents had a farm in Nottinghamshire, and her parents farmed in South Wales but cheese making and goat dairying are new.
They were inspired by a magazine article they read on holiday in Summer 2014. They spent the next year and a half researching goat breeds and cheese making. They decided to build a herd of purebred Anglo Nubian goats – known for their rich and creamy milk.
They wanted to focus on creating high quality-local cheese in a sustainable way.
They made it official in May 2015 and took advantage of an initiative called Farm Step run by nearby environmental charity Earth Trust, who offer tenancies on their land and barn space to agricultural business start-ups who are locked out by high land prices. The cheeses are made at Nettlebed Creamery although they are in the process of building their own creamery nearer to the milking parlour.
milk:
Norton & Yarrow’s Anglo-Nubian goats graze at the Earth Trust’s North Farm at Little Wittenham. The farm which they found is owned by Little Wittenham wildlife education charity Earth Trust, which also owns the iconic Wittenham Clumps hilltop woods. They use raw milk to make the cheeses.
experience:
They sought help from other goat keepers and cheese makers in particular Paul Thomas, Will Nubia goats at Hill Farm Dairy, Michele Tomlin at Southdown Farm, Maggi Franklin at Tyegronen Goats and Rose Grimond and Tee Scotthorne at Nettlebed Creamery.
points of interest:
They have named their first cheeses,based on traditional French recipes, after nearby landmarks: Brightwell Barrow and Sinodun Hill (the historic name for Wittenham Clumps).
featured cheese:
Sinodun hill
Sinodun Hill is a ripened goats’ cheese pyramid, similar in style to a Pouligny and other French goats’ cheeses. It is made using the traditional method of slow lactic coagulation and is then matured for up to 21 days to develop the flavour and texture. It has a light nutty edge and a smooth texture. Its rind naturally develops some blue and grey moulds as it ages, which add to the flavour and character of the cheese. Sinodun Hill is the alternative name for the Wittenham Clumps, standing just above the Earth Trust farm where the goats graze.
They develop a rind that is formed from the yeast geotricum; it gives the subtlest flavour and allows the milk itself to be best expressed in the cheese. The cheeses start off with a plain white surface; geotricum makes the rind take on a cream colour and gives it a lovely wrinkly appearance
Sinodun Hill won a Silver at the World Cheese Awards 2016, a Bronze Medal at the British Cheese Awards 2016, and a Silver Award at the British Artisan Cheese Awards 2016.
featured cheese:
Brightwell Barrow
Made with unpasteurised goats milk from two herds in Oxfordshire, this is a fresh goat cheese made using a slow, lactic coagulation method using vegetarian rennet. It has a light, mousse-like, creamy texture with a fresh citrus flavour.
Brightwell Barrow won a Gold Medal at the British Cheese Awards in June 2016, and a Silver Award at the British Artisan Cheese Awards in April 2016.
They have stopped making this cheese to concentrate on Sinodun Hill.
Nettlebed Creamery | Manor Farm, High Street, Nettlebed RG9 5DA
+447770947030 
2015
Farmhouse Cheese
Rose Grimond, Tracey Scotthorne, Ali Lees
name:
locative
origin:
Rose Grimond started making cheese in January 2015. Now in its second year, the Creamery is home to award-winning St Bartholomew and Bix made by cheesemakers Tee Scotthorne and Ali Lees. After changing the recipe, she began producing St Bartholomew in quantity in September 2015.
milk:
The milk is organic and comes from the Merrimoles Farm Dairy at Bix (part of the Nettlebed Estate). The herd is a cross-breed of Holsteins, Swedish Reds and Montbeliards with a few Swiss Brown. The cows graze on grass and clover leys with additional herbs such as chicory, plantain and yarrow.
experience:
Rose Grimond’s set up the 250 sq m creamery in January 2015. An Oxford graduate and former actress, she spent five years selling produce from Orkney at Borough Market and to top London chefs.
“Her stall was at Borough Market she says allowed her to make useful contacts when the future of the family farm came up for discussion and Rose wanted to move out of London. She started thinking about what they could do with the milk,” she says. Cheese making felt like the natural choice.
The new-build creamery was jointly financed by Rose and the farm. Rose works with cheesemakeys Tracey Scotthorne (ex stichelton) and Ali Lees.
points of interest:
They share the dairy premises with and Norton and Yarrow Cheese.
featured cheese:
St Bartholomew is a semi-hard, unpasteurised cheese, named after Nettlebed village church. It is made with organic milk and is made to a recipe which is similar to many alpine cheeses. It has a deep, nutty flavour with fruity, caramel overtones and a smooth texture which develops complexity with age. The cheese is matured for 5-6 months. St Barts is certified organic by the Soil Association. They wash the rind for the first two weeks of the cheese’s life before allowing it to mature and develop a natural rind with blue-grey moulds. It won a bronze award in the semi-hard cheese category at the Artisan Cheese Fair in Melton Mowbray.
featured cheese:
Bix is a soft, unpasteurised, triple cream cheese, named after the village where the herd grazes. The recipe is loosely based on that of a Chaource, a luxuriant white-rind cheese from Champagne country in northern France. It was launched may 2016.
Windrush Valley Goat Dairy | Pinchpool Farm,Windrush, OX18 4TT
+44 01451 844828
2002
Farmhouse Cheese
Renee Loveridge and Richard Loveridge
name:
locative – not strictly in Oxfordshire they nevertheless have an Oxfordshire postcode
origin:
Richard b 1967 is from New Zealand and Renee b 1968 is from USA
milk:
They have a herd of pedigree British Saanan goats and Toggenberg goats that are fed mainly on haylage and a concentrate. They use pasteurised milk to make the cheeses.
experience:
points of interest:
They have been producing a range of soft fresh goats’ cheeses at their award winning goat dairy at Windrush, near Burford. Use traditional French methods. They also make natural drinking/pouring yogurt with excellent probiotic qualities, baked cheesecake, made from fresh soft goat cheese in various sizes and also sold by the slice, pasteurised milk and seasonally – kid meat.
You can also buy direct from the farm – please call us first.
The dairy is expanding the team are working on producing aged, hard goats’ cheeses in the near future…
featured cheese:
Fresh Goats Cheese
They produce a pure unflavoured cheese, and coat the cheeses withfresh herbs or peppercorns and a garlic and cracked pepper cheese.
These cheeses are made using pasteurised milk are sold young and therefore have clean and gentle flavours
silver award – Cheese 2007 (British Cheese Awards).Bronze Award 2009 (British Cheese Awards) In 2012, the herb variety won Best Fresh Cheese at the British Cheese Awards.
I first discovered Rollright at the Thame food Festival 2016 where David had a small stand. The cheese he was selling had a very different appearance to the cheeses on sale now and I guess this is due to the outdoor grazing. it resembled a french monastery cheese like Abbaye de Citeaux or maybe a Reblochon The paste was firmer and full of eyes. I wonder whether this seasonal variation will continue?