For those who are not local to the area, the name Wensleydale likely evokes one thought. Cheese!
Although the Yorkshire Dales are renowned for their picturesque villages, dry stone walls and rolling green pastures, they are also famed for their produce, and it is fair to say that Yorkshire folk certainly know their cheeses!
For centuries, the Dales have been churning out world-renowned dairy products – making it a land rich in dairy lore. But cheesemaking today looks very different from the traditional methods used in small Dales farmhouse kitchens.
Traditional Dales cheesemaking dates back centuries, and, ever since, the people of Swaledale and Wensleydale have perfected their cheese craft to reflect the uniqueness of the land and its inhabitants. Dales cheeses are not simply curds and whey. They are a symbol of the resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and skill of local people – a delicious reward for hard work and dedication.
Monks, Milk, and Medieval Mastery
The story begins in the 12th century, with the arrival of Cistercian monks at Jervaulx Abbey. Known for their austere lifestyle and agricultural prowess, the Cistercians were instrumental in transforming the Dales into a hub of dairy production. Their approach to cheese and butter making was an extension of their belief in self-sufficiency and stewardship of the land.
At Jervaulx, the monks primarily farmed sheep for their dairy produce. Their cheeses and butters were simple, fresh and functional, used to feed the monastic community and trade with locals. But more importantly, they laid the foundations for a culture of dairy craftmanship that would endure for centuries.
As time passed, monastic influence gave way to domestic farm life. By the 17th century, with the Cistercians long gone, fleeing the inclement Dales weather, cow’s milk became the main dairy source. Swaledale farm wives, tending to their hardy shorthorn cows, took up the mantle of cheesemaking with pride and personal flair. Each household had its own methods, its own secrets, and its own reputation.
The cows themselves played a crucial role. Grazing on the lush, varied hay meadows of the Dales, their milk carried the essence of the land. Wensleydale’s soft pastures created a sweeter flavour, whereas Swaledale’s tougher terrain and wild grasses made the milk richer. These subtle differences gave rise to two distinct cheeses.
Domestic Dairy Rituals
Although cheese is the crown jewel of the Dales’ dairy tradition, butter was its everyday companion. Just as full of flavour and character. In Swaledale kitchens, butter making was a ritual steeped in folklore and practical wisdom. If the butter wouldn’t turn, the farm wives would say it had “gone to sleep,” as if the churn itself had grown weary of the task.
Each wife had her own butter mark – a personal stamp pressed into the finished rounds. These marks weren’t just decorative; they were a signature.
Bad butter was often repurposed as salve for the sheep. Before sheep dipping existed, farmers had to salve sheep by smearing a mixture of tar and fat over every inch of the skin to protect from parasites and scab. Young boys tasked with this job would end up with blackened fingers, a badge of labour they’d try to scrub away before heading out courting.
Local butter traders, like Dick Guy, would carry Swaledale butter over the high passes of the Buttertubs to sell in Hawes. This was an important journey for selling Swaledale produce to the rest of the Dales community.
Cheese Craft and Character
Cheesemaking in the Yorkshire Dales was a time-consuming, physically demanding, and deeply personal task. For the farm wives of the northern dales, it was a daily ritual shaped by instinct, tradition, and the unpredictable temperament of milk.
Each woman had her own method, rhythm and reputation. Some were known for cheeses so delicious they’d fetch up to £18 at market – a small fortune at the time. Others, less fortunate, were notorious for their consistently poor quality. In the Dales, this was known as lack of good ‘cheesehands’ – a local term for someone who simply didn’t have the knack for cheesemaking.
Before modern rennet, cheesemakers relied on nature’s tools. Farmers would take the stomach of a young calf which would be hung up and dried in the kitchen. Pieces of this would then be boiled in water, creating a liquid known as Keslop which was then added to the milk to form the curd. When that wasn’t available, they turned to black snails found in swampy fields. These methods may sound strange today, but they were born of necessity and honed by generations of trial and error.
The cheese itself was pickled, not dry-salted like today’s varieties, giving it a richer flavour. Hawes in Wensleydale adopted the cheese press early on, while Swaledale held onto older, traditional techniques. There were distinct differences between the cheeses of these two dales. Swaledale cheese was bold and earthy, shaped by the rugged terrain and wild grasses of its hay meadows. Wensleydale cheese, by contrast, was softer and sweeter, reflecting the softer pastures and more temperate climate.
Cheese wasn’t just made for the locals to eat – it was sold, traded, and renowned. Farm wives brought their wheels to local markets. The best cheeses were taken to Yarm and sold on to merchants, destined for Christmas tables across the region. The deliciously rich accompaniment to Christmas cake is still a favourite today.
Industrialisation and Innovation
By the late 19th century, the landscape of cheesemaking in the Yorkshire Dales was changing. What had long been the domain of farm wives was beginning to move toward industrialisation.
In 1897, Edward Chapman took a bold step. Instead of buying cheese from individual Dales farms, he began collecting milk directly and producing cheese in a factory setting. His goal was consistency – cheese that tasted the same from wheel to wheel, batch to batch. For the farm wives, this shift was bittersweet. While it freed up their time, it also marked the end of a cheesemaking culture they had created with their own hands.
Factories began to pop up across the region in Coverham, Dent, Leyburn, Hawes, and later in Masham, Thoralby, and Kirby Malzeard, thanks to entrepreneurs like Alfred Rowntree. These dairies introduced innovations like the cheese “starter,” which sped up the process considerably. Purpose-built piggeries were constructed to deal with the large amounts of whey, which couldn’t be discarded into sewers or streams. Some dairies even sold the whey to protein powder manufacturers, turning waste into profit.
During wartime, milk became a precious commodity. Churns were delivered from Dales farms to Askrigg Station for wider distribution. A small dairy opened in Askrigg, followed by another in Redmire, helping Wensleydale farmers meet growing demand. But even as the industry scaled up, the land still had influence. The cheeses made in these new factories still bore the unique taste of the haymeadows and grasses that fed the cows.
The War Years
As factory production grew and the Wensleydale name became synonymous with cheese from the northern Dales, tensions began to simmer. Swaledale farm wives, whose methods had shaped the region’s dairy heritage, watched as their techniques were absorbed, rebranded, and mass-produced under a different name. The cheeses may have shared geography, but they didn’t share soul.
One farm wife notably remarked, “Is it worth trying to teach Wensleydale people anything?” A quiet protest against the homogenisation of a craft that had once been as varied as the landscape.
In 1933, the formation of the Milk Marketing Board added another layer of complexity. Designed to stabilise milk prices and regulate distribution, it inadvertently introduced imported colonial cheeses, heavily subsidised by the government. These imports flooded the market, undercutting local producers and threatening the survival of traditional dairies.
In response, the Wensleydale Cheese Conference was held in Northallerton from 1935 to 1939, a desperate attempt to rally producers and protect the industry. But the challenges kept mounting.
When World War II broke out, milk was rationed and redirected to support the war effort. In 1939, no Wensleydale cheese was made at all. The dairies struggled to source milk, and local cheesemaking was brought to a standstill.
Yet amid the hardship, resilience endured. Kit Calvert, a local visionary and owner of the creamery in Hawes, stepped in to preserve what remained. On 20 May 1935, he took over dairies at Kirby Malzeard and Masham, laying the foundation for what would become the present-day Wensleydale Cheese Company. His efforts kept the flame alive during the darkest years, ensuring that the legacy of Dales cheesemaking would not be lost.
Revival and Legacy
By the 1980s, Swaledale cheese had largely been forgotten, with only a few farm wives still knowing how to make it. But in 1987, a chef from South Shields, driven by curiosity and reverence for tradition, sought to revive the lost art of Swaledale cheesemaking.
The recipe and method had never been written down, passed instead from one generation to the next, guarded like folklore. But one farm wife, recognising the importance of preserving her heritage, agreed to share the secret. With her guidance, the Swaledale Cheese Company was born. The cheese, bold and earthy as ever, found its way from the rugged hills of the northern Dales to the polished counters of Harrods, a journey that would have seemed impossible a century earlier.
Although the methods may have changed and scaled up from the small farm kitchens of the Dales, the pride and heart that goes into Dales cheesemaking lives on. Many are keen to keep the tradition and taste alive. Curlew Dairy in Carperby makes traditional Wensleydale in their local dairy. The Courtyard Dairy in Settle and The Cheese Press in Richmond are serving up some of the finest Dales cheeses to the surrounding communities. And the Wensleydale Creamery still stands strong as a tourist favourite in the heart of the Dales.
If this blog has made you hungry for more, come and join us for our Cheese Festival this October (10-19), where you can try all the best cheese and produce the Dales has to offer, experiencing the flavours the way they were supposed to be enjoyed – in the beautiful Dales countryside.
Thanks are given to the Keld Resource Centre, who are keen to share these stories and keep Dales cheesemaking history alive. You can visit the Resource Centre in Keld, Swaledale, where you will find traditional cheese and butter making tools from the very farmhouses that created these delicious cheeses.