Exceptional cheese from the Midlands

A new generation of British cheesemaking, rooted in the history of the Welbeck Estate.

Based on the historic Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire, Primrose Creamery is a young artisan dairy founded by cheesemaker Jake Goldstein. Production began in late 2025 at the School of Artisan Food, where Jake makes small batches of raw milk cheese using warm, unpasteurised cow’s milk from the same local herd that supplies neighbouring Stichelton.

Primrose may be a new name in British cheese, but its philosophy is firmly connected to the past. Every cheese is made slowly and by hand, with curds gently ladled and rinds allowed to develop naturally. Rather than simply recreating traditional recipes, Jake’s approach is about respecting the land, milk and people who came before while creating cheeses with their own modern identity.

Even the names tell a story. Lindley is named after Elizabeth Lindley, a dairymaid who once lived above the dairy at Welbeck and cared for the herd. Enriched with Jersey cream, it is a soft, luxurious raw milk cheese with a dense, whipped texture that becomes increasingly rich and spreadable as it ripens.

Eggleston remembers Nottinghamshire farmer William Eggleston, who lost his life during the Nottingham Cheese Riot of 1766. It is a small soft cheese with a delicate orange rind, beginning fresh and bright before developing a softer, richer centre as it matures.

And what a start the creamery has had. In 2026, both Lindley and Eggleston received three stars at the Great Taste Awards. Eggleston went on to receive the Golden Fork from England, while Lindley received the Golden Fork for Outstanding Bursary Winner — extraordinary recognition for the first two cheeses from such a young dairy.

Primrose Creamery represents exactly what makes modern British cheese so exciting: new cheesemakers, traditional skills, raw local milk and a genuine connection between cheese, people and place.

From the Creamery: Lindley and Eggleston.

The family farm that brought traditional Red Leicester back home.

At Sparkenhoe Farm near Market Bosworth, Jo and David Clarke have helped revive one of Britain's great territorial cheeses. Their families have farmed in the area for generations, but it was the need to diversify their dairy farm that led them down a completely new path — artisan cheesemaking.

After exploring ways to secure the future of the farm without giving up their cows, Jo and David turned to something that had once been part of Leicestershire's identity: traditional farmhouse Red Leicester. They learned the craft, researched old methods and recipes and, in 2005, began making Sparkenhoe Red Leicester. In doing so, they revived the raw-milk, clothbound style of Red Leicester that had disappeared for around half a century.

Today, the cheese starts with milk from the farm's own herd of around 150 pedigree Holstein-Friesian cows. The milk travels straight from the milking parlour into the cheesemaking room, keeping the connection between land, herd and finished cheese remarkably close. The Clarkes also grow much of the cows' feed themselves and have adopted regenerative farming practices designed to protect the farm's soil and wider ecosystem.

Sparkenhoe Red Leicester is made using unpasteurised milk and traditional methods, with natural annatto creating its characteristic deep orange-red colour. The cheeses are bound in muslin cloth and matured on beechwood shelves, developing the mellow, nutty and gently sweet character that has made Sparkenhoe so distinctive.

What began as a way of safeguarding a family dairy farm has become something much bigger: the restoration of an important part of British cheesemaking heritage.

From the Farm: Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, Vintage Red Leicester, Sparkenhoe Blue, Sparkenhoe Shropshire Blue, Bosworth Field and Redemore.

Keeping Derbyshire’s historic cheesemaking tradition alive in the heart of the Peak District.

Hartington Creamery has a remarkable history stretching back to the 1870s, when the Duke of Devonshire established a creamery at Hartington to make use of milk produced by tenant farmers across the Derbyshire Dales. After a devastating fire in 1894, the site was later taken over by prize-winning cheesemaker Thomas Nuttall, who began producing Blue Stilton at Hartington in 1900.

For more than a century, Hartington became synonymous with Derbyshire cheesemaking. As other local dairies gradually disappeared, Hartington remained — until the original factory finally closed in 2009, bringing commercial cheesemaking in the village to an end. Thankfully, the story didn't finish there.

In 2012, Hartington Creamery was reborn at historic Pikehall Farm in the Derbyshire Dales. Some of the team had worked at the former creamery, allowing generations of knowledge and traditional cheesemaking skills to be carried into the new business. By 2014, Stilton production had returned to Hartington, restoring an important part of the area's food heritage.

Today, Hartington describes itself as the world's smallest Stilton producer. Its cheeses are handmade using traditional artisan techniques and milk from the Derbyshire Dales, with the creamery producing both Blue and White Stilton alongside traditional Derbyshire cheeses.

The connection between farm and creamery remains particularly close at Pikehall. Around 200 dairy cows are milked on the farm, with the milk travelling from herd to parlour to creamery on the same site — even following an ancient Roman track through the farmyard on their way to be milked.

Hartington isn't simply making cheese; it's protecting a Derbyshire tradition that very nearly disappeared. It's a story of heritage, revival and generations of cheesemaking knowledge continuing in the landscape where it belongs.

From the Creamery: Hartington Blue Stilton, White Stilton, Dovedale Blue, Peakland Blue, Peakland White, Traditional Derby, Red Derby and Sage Derby.

Over a century of cheesemaking, built by generations of local dairy farmers.

In the Vale of Belvoir, close to Melton Mowbray, Long Clawson Dairy has been making cheese for more than a century. Founded in 1911, the dairy was created as a farmers' cooperative — bringing local dairy farmers together to turn their milk into cheese and create a sustainable future for their farms.

That cooperative spirit remains at the heart of Long Clawson today. The dairy continues to work with its network of farmer members and milk suppliers, combining generations of farming knowledge with more than 100 years of cheesemaking expertise. Long Clawson operates its own farm standards covering areas including animal welfare, farm management and milk quality.

Long Clawson is particularly renowned for Blue Stilton, one of Britain's most celebrated protected cheeses. Stilton can only be produced in the three counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and must meet strict specifications to carry the name. At Long Clawson, that heritage has become a speciality, with the dairy's Stilton receiving numerous British and international cheese awards over the years.

Alongside its famous blues, the dairy has continued to innovate, producing traditional territorial cheeses as well as distinctive blended and flavoured varieties. Its range demonstrates how a cheesemaker can protect traditional British styles while continuing to develop new products for modern cheese counters and menus.

More than a hundred years after local farmers first came together to establish the dairy, Long Clawson remains closely connected to the farming community that created it — a story of cooperation, British cheesemaking heritage and generations of expertise.

From the Dairy: Blue Stilton, Mature Blue Stilton, White Stilton, Shropshire Blue, Rutland Red

A modern British classic, created to bring a lost tradition of raw-milk blue cheesemaking back to life.

On the historic Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire, cheesemaker Joe Schneider makes one of Britain's most distinctive blue cheeses: Stichelton.

The story began in 2004 when Joe and Randolph Hodgson, founder of Neal's Yard Dairy, started discussing an idea over a pint in Borough Market. Randolph remembered the traditional unpasteurised Stiltons that had disappeared from production and wanted to bring that style of cheesemaking back. Together they began searching for a farm where they could make a traditional raw-milk blue cheese.

They found their home on the Welbeck Estate, on the edge of Sherwood Forest, converting a historic farm building into a small dairy. The first Stichelton was made in 2006 and, twenty years later, Joe continues to make the cheese there using raw milk from the estate's own herd of pedigree Holstein cows.

The name itself is part of the story. Although inspired by the traditional methods once used to make raw-milk Stilton, the cheese cannot legally be called Stilton because the protected specification requires Stilton to be made using pasteurised milk. Instead, Joe and Randolph chose Stichelton, a historic form of the name of the village of Stilton.

Everything about Stichelton is deliberately slow and hands-on. Warm morning milk travels from the Welbeck herd to the dairy, where the curds are gently hand-ladled rather than treated mechanically. The make takes around 24 hours, encouraging the character of the raw milk and its natural flora to become part of the finished cheese.

The result is a rich, creamy and complex blue whose character can change subtly with the seasons as the cows graze the Welbeck pastures. It is a cheese rooted in one herd, one estate and a determination to preserve traditional British cheesemaking skills.

In 2026, Stichelton celebrates its 20th anniversary — two decades of proving that sometimes looking back at traditional methods can create something that feels completely contemporary.

From the Dairy: Stichelton — raw cow's milk, traditional animal rennet, naturally rinded and blue-veined.