Michael Jamieson Bristow 
BRITISH CHEESES
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CAERPHILLY CHEESE
Caerphilly cheese is a hard cheese that originates in the area around the town of Caerphilly in Wales. It was not originally made in the town, but was sold at market there, hence taking the town's name. It is a light-coloured (almost white) crumbly cheese made from cow's milk, and generally has a fat content of around 48%. It has a mild taste, but perhaps its most noticeable feature is its saltiness. It is rumoured that the cheese was developed over time to provide the miners with a convenient way of replenishing the salt lost through hard work underground and so was a staple of the diet of the coal-miners.
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CHEDDAR CHEESE
Cheddar cheese is a pale yellow to orange, sharp-tasting cheese originally made in the English village of Cheddar, in Somerset. It has been made since at least 1170: a pipe roll of King Henry II from that year records the purchase of 10,420 pounds at a farthing per pound (£3 per tonne). Some Cheddar cheese produced in the UK is matured in the caves at Wookey Hole. A number of large commercial food companies have in recent years establish well known brands in the UK for their Cheddar cheese (Pilgrim's Choice, Cathedral City etc). This move is considered by some to be a safeguard against the possibility of Cheddar cheese receiving 'protected designated origin' status in the future. Some companies have also considered the possibility of relocating to Cheddar, Somerset if this occurs.
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CHESHIRE CHEESE
Cheshire cheese is a dense and crumbly cheese with a very sharp flavour derived from the area's abundant deposits of salt produced in Cheshire, England, and the neighbouring counties of Denbighshire, Flintshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. Cheshire cheese is one of the oldest recorded cheeses in British history and is referred to in the Domesday Book. Cheshire cheese was the most popular cheese on the market in the late eighteenth century. In 1758 the Royal Navy ordered that ships be stocked with Cheshire and Gloucester cheeses. By 1823, Cheshire cheese production was estimated at 10,000 tonnes per year. Sales of Cheshire cheese peaked at around 40,000 tonnes in 1960 subsequently declining as the range of cheeses available in the UK grew considerably. Cheshire cheese remains the UK's largest selling crumbly cheese with sales of around 6,500 tonnes per year.
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DERBY CHEESE
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DORSET CHEESE
Dorset Blue cheese is a traditional blue cheese made in Dorset, England, from skimmed cow's milk. It is a hard, crumbly cheese with a strong taste and smell. While the cheese was a common farmhouse cheese in Dorset for hundreds of years, production dried up around 1960 and the cheese became extinct. However, in the 1980's Woodbridge Farm in Dorset revived the old recipe and is now producing the cheese again. It is often made from unpasteurised milk. This is considered healthy by some and risky by others due to the potential for tuberculosis from infected cows passing into the milk.
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GLOUCESTER CHEESE
Double Gloucester cheese is a traditional, unpasteurised, semi-hard cheese which has been made in Gloucestershire, England, since the sixteenth century. Gloucester cheese's were at one time made only with the milk from Gloucester cows, which are now almost extinct. There are two types of Gloucester cheese: Single and Double. The main difference is that Single Gloucester is made with skimmed milk combined with a small amount of whole milk. Double Gloucester is made from only whole milk. Double Gloucester cheese is also used every spring for the Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake, a dangerous sport.
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LANARK CHEESE
Lanark Blue cheese is a full-flavoured cheese with a strong flavour that varies according to the time of year that the cheese is made produced in Lanarkshire, Scotland. produced at Ogcastle near to the village of Carnwath by Humphrey Errington since 1985, it is a rich blue-veined artisan cheese. Made from the cheesemaker's own flock's produce, it is one of the first blue ewe's milk cheese produced in British since the Middle Ages. Penicillium roqueforti, is used to create the veining.
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LANCASHIRE CHEESE
Lancashire cheese, a crumbly English cow's-milk cheese, is considered one of the premier products of the county. Centred approximately 30 miles north of Manchester, many local farms produce this famous cheese, and it is associated with the town of Leigh. Lancashire cheese can be classified as either 'crumbly' or 'creamy'. Well matured Lancashire cheese is referred to locally as Tasty. imilar to caerphilly cheese, it is reputed to be the best toasting cheese in the world and as such is a favourite for Welsh rarebit. It is often featured in supermarket cheese counters, although it (like most other cheeses) tastes better and more 'genuine' from the many farms that produce it. It consistently wins British cheese awards, as well.
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LEICESTER CHEESE
Red Leicester cheese, is an English cheese, made in a similar manner to cheddar cheese, but is crumblier: it is coloured orange by adding annatto extract during manufacture. The fairly mild flavour goes well with most food and wine or beer, and is good for Welsh rarebit.
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STILTON CHEESE
Stilton is a cheese of England. Hailed by some as 'the king of cheese' it has been granted the status of a protected designation of origin by the European Commission. Only cheese produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire - and made according to a strict code - may be called 'Stilton'. Ironically, this means that Stilton cheese cannot legally be made in the village that - because it was sold there - gave the cheese its name. Stilton village is now in Cambridgeshire, in the former county of Huntingdonshire. There are currently just six dairies licensed to make Stilton, each being subject to regular audit by an independent inspection agency accredited to European Standard EN 45011. At present, all but one of the licenced dairies are based in the Vale of Belvoir, which straddles the Nottinghamshire-Leicestershire border. This area is commonly regarded as the heartland of Stilton production, with dairies located in the villages of Colston Bassett, Cropwell Bishop and Long Clawson. The only current dairy producing Stilton elsewhere (at Hartington in Derbyshire) owes this fact to a native of the Vale who bought the dairy over a century ago. The pioneer of blue Stilton was Cooper Thornhill, owner of the Bell Inn on the Great North Road, in the village of Stilton. In 1730, Thornhill discovered a distinctive blue blue cheese while visiting a small farm in rural Leicestershire. He fell in love with the cheese and made a business arrangement that granted the Bell Inn exclusive marketing rights to blue Stilton Soon thereafter, wagon loads of cheese were being delivered to the inn. Since the main stagecoach routes from London to Northern England passed through the village of Stilton he was able to promote the sale of this cheese and the legend of Stilton rapidly spread. A 2005 study carried out by the British Cheese Board discovered that when it came to dream types, Stilton cheese seemed to cause odd dreams, with 75% of men and 85% of women experiencing bizarre and vivid dreams after eating a 20g piece of the cheese 30 minutes before going to sleep.
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WENSLEYDALE CHEESE
Wensleydale cheese is a cheese produced in the town of Hawes in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England. The Wensleydale pastures give the cheese the unique flavour for which it is renowned. Good Wensleydale has a supple, crumbly, most texture and resembles a young Caerphilly. The flavour suggests wild honey balanced with a fresh acidity. Wensleydale cheese was first made by French Cistercian monks from the Roquefort region, who had settled in Wensleydale. They built a monastery at Fors, but some years later the monks moved to Jervaulx in Lower Wensleydale. They brought with them a recipe for making cheese from ewe's milk. During the 1300's cow's milk began to be used instead, and the character of the cheese began to change. A little ewe's milk was still mixed in since it gave a more open texture. When the monastery was dissolved in 1540 the local farmers continued making the cheese right up until the Second World War, during which most milk in the country was used for the making of 'Government Cheddar'. Even after rationing ceased in 1954, cheese making did not return to pre-war levels.
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