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A brief history of Wensleydale cheese

Below follows an abridged history of Wensleydale cheese, for full detailed history of Wensleydale cheese you’ll want to get your hands on the limited edition book: “Some notes on Wensleydale Cheese (1000AD – 2024)”

  • Ancient times. Cheesemaking has been in the Dales for 1000s of years, often associated with the establishment of monasteries after William the Conquerors invasion.
    However there was cheesemaking in the region prior to that, with Roman cheesemaking moulds and evidence found in archaeological digs throughout the Dales (notably at Bainbridge Roman Fort).
  • Monastic Influence. There is no doubt that the monasteries in the Yorkshire Dales framed the landscape we see today, taking control of land management and agricultural techniques – many of the dry stonewalls still in use will have been established by monks. With lay brothers to make cheese, and cheesemaking expertise from visiting French abbots; there is many historical ledger records of cheese sales from the famous abbey of Jervaulx, Fountains and Bolton.
    Although the cheese was probably quite unlike anything we would taste today. Some cows’ milk was used; but sheep’s milk would dominate (primarily led by the wool trade), until the 17th century – when cow dairying began to take over. With the dissolution of the monasteries, cheesemaking passed to farmers wives and became a household task.
  • Small farms. A challenging landscape, the Dales were noted for their small farms and cheesemaking fitted in around the day, using low temperatures and minimal handling. Cheeses were white, but often blued naturally – and although rare, the bluer cheeses were sought after across the land. Cheeses were made through the all the different Yorkshire Dales but often they all took their name of the dale ‘Wensleydale’ when they were sold due to the large market at Leyburn (in Wensleydale) and railway line there controlling their onward distribution.
  • Old Wensleydale Cheese PhotoIndustrial revolution. This time led to a greater understanding of the science to make more consistent, safer and more palatable cheeses: dairy experts were employed throughout the UK to document and improve regional cheeses. John Benson of the British Dairy Institute, Aylesbury (1900) examined cheesemaking in Yorkshire and his method for Wensleydale went on to be taught to Wensleydale cheesemakers via Leeds Agricultural College. No doubt he refined, and improved it, using techniques from other notable cheese regions – such as the addition of dry salt rather than brining the cheese (as was carried out historically).
  • Wartime cheese recipes. The effects of the World Wars on the British cheese industry are well documented elsewhere but Kit Calvert (1981) sums it up neatly: “during the War production of cheese was fully controlled by the Ministry of Food, and cheese had to fit the Ministry’s rationing standards: ‘it must contain no more than 16% moisture’ [this is efficient to make, and avoids shrinkage as it matures]… it meant that all cheese had to be dry in texture… The true Wensleydale (either soft and creamy or moist and crumbly) Wensleydale-cheese-making.jpgcontained far in excess of this 16% moisture. I well remember the first day the grader arrived at the creamery, he graded all our cheeses unfit for retail sale as they were too moist, and we received uneconomic price for the cheese – the cheese went to be processed. We cheesemakers soon adapted our methods of manufacture to fit the Ministry standard.“
    Eighty percent of farm cheesemakers gave up in the first year with these Ministry standards, and 10 years later, by the time freedom of choice in cheesemaking returned, the market had changed and the old methods died out.
    These ‘modern’ recipes continued to prevail and the drive for efficiency of cheesemaking at scale for factory production meant they dominated and became the established recipes for what most people expect from a Wensleydale today.
  • Recent resurgence of farm cheese. An increasing interest in food, provenance, coupled with economic factors for farmers such as the low price of milk has led farmers to look to these recipes of old as a way of diversifying. In 2024 at a seminar, the current Wensleydale cheese-makers in Yorkshire were brought together as part of The Wensleydale Project with two aims: To document the current production methods of farmhouse Wensleydale so they could be recorded for future generations; To explore how each maker deals with the challenges of making Wensleydale cheese and to further understand how small changes within drainage and acidification affects the outcome of the cheese.  More details on that project here >

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