Andy win's British Library 'Food Hero Award 2025'

The Wensleydale Cheese Project

16th July 2025

“The real Wensleydale died during the War, murdered by a pinstripe power … … what a cheese it was, creamy and moist and white with a totally unique flavour”. [Famous Dalesman and iconic Yorkshire cheesemaker Kit Calvert] Introduction The renowned British territorial cheese, Wensleydale, has changed monumentally over the last century. Dying out as a farmhouse cheese in the 1950s the recipe evolved to be more efficient, stable, fast maturing and economic to produce. It became quite a different beast: the crumbly, tart, dry cheese you would associate with the modern-day Wensleydale cheese, that you will find in supermarkets today. In the late 2010s, as part of a general trend for revival of artisan produce and farm cheesemaking, The Courtyard Dairy, and several local farmers in the Yorkshire Dales looked to reverse that trend. Taking influence from old pre-war recipes and notes, scraps of paper and faded photos, they looked to recreate this iconic cheese and construct a new chapter for farmhouse Wensleydale cheese. Trying to piece together knowledge, recipes, and thoughts to establish how Wensleydale used to be made was a challenge. From these same influences three producers eventually developed their own example of Wensleydale: Curlew Dairy, Whin Yeats…

BBC Food Programme Cheese Courtyard Dairy

BBC Radio 4: Food Programme. “Is our cheese heritage ancient history?”

17th April 2025

Andy & Kathy from The Courtyard Dairy was excited to be featured on BBC Radio 4’s “Food Programme” this week, in their episode on: “Is our cheese heritage ancient history?”. Discussing their research into British cheese and it’s evolution: past, present and future. They helped Sheila Dillon decode an ancient 112 page ancient vellum manuscript “A Pamflyt Compiled of Cheese, Contayninge the Differences, Nature, Qualities, and Goodness, of the Same” recently discovered by Leeds University and brought it to life. Using inspiration from their pamfylt and other historical references they handmade a recreation of an ancient cheese to the region: Courtyard Dairy Soft. Listen to it here: Find out more fascinating facts about cheese – simply sign up to The Courtyard Dairy monthly newsletter for regular exciting offers and interesting info. from the cheese-world. Sign up here.

A History of British Cheese – The 20th Century and the Eradication of Farmhouse Production

3rd December 2016

Despite the decline of farmhouse cheese production as a result of the industrial revolution, by the early 1900s there was still a reasonable amount of cheese being made on the farm throughout the UK. But that was about to change. Before the First World War there were over 3,500 farmhouse cheese-makers in the UK. By the end of the Second World War, barely 100 were still making cheese. The political turmoil throughout Europe that followed the First World War brought about significant changes in British cheese production. During the First World War much of farmhouse cheese production ceased. Following the war, many farmers didn’t bother to start producing cheese again, and those that did continued to struggle. The farming, market and social conditions that prevailed right through into the 1930s meant that specialist cheese-making remained uneconomical. The 1930s rise of unrest and growing Nazism within Europe led the British Government to realise it could no longer rely on imports from overseas, the colonies and the Empire in order to feed the nation. Britain had to become more self-sufficient, so the government introduced several key policies. One of these was the 1933 creation of the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) designed to…

Andy & Kathy Recreate Age-old ‘Passing a Baby through Cheese’ Tradition

13th May 2016

The Courtyard Dairy, has re-enacted an age-old tradition of passing a newborn baby through a wheel of cheese. Andy and his wife Kathy (owner’s of Settle’s award-winning cheesemonger) found out about the interesting tradition whilst they were researching ancient cheese recipes. Listed as a ‘cheese curiosity’ the antique book they were perusing showed that in the 1800s and earlier it was not unusual for a husband to supply a whole cheese at the time of his wife’s delivery, and for the cheese to have its centre removed in order to allow the newly-born baby to be ‘passed through’ a ‘ring of cheese’ when Christened. Called ‘groaning cheese’ because of the noise a woman emits when giving birth, chunks of the groaning cheese were cut from the middle when the baby was born, and given to everyone present. This left a ‘cheese ring’ through which the newborn could be passed when Christened, ensuring good luck for the rest of his or her life. Andy and Kathy, who’ve worked in the cheese industry for many years in the UK and France, coincidentally were lucky enough to become the parents of baby Walter on 22nd March this year. This was that was too…

Exploring territorial British Cheese – from Cheddar to Cheshire: what’s the difference?

2nd May 2015

The traditional British Cheese types are often called the ‘territorials’; as they take name from the counties or areas where they come from, but what is the difference? Find out here.

Andy Swinscoe wins “Cheesemonger of the Year” at The World Cheese Awards.

4th December 2013

The Courtyard Dairy, the specialist cheese shop on the A65 near Settle, North Yorkshire, has followed up its success in winning ‘Best New Cheese Retailer’ at The British Cheese Awards last summer by adding not one, but two prestigious awards at the World Cheese Awards held at the BBC Good Food Show last week: The Courtyard Dairy itself won ‘Best Cheese Counter’, and their young managing partner, Andy Swinscoe, won ‘Cheesemonger of the Year’ after a hard-fought contest.