22 October 2007, 17:44 PM

  • A campaign to revitalise the fortunes of Cheshire cheese – once the nation’s favourite – has been launched.

Three of the region’s only six remaining producers of traditional crumbly Cheshire are joining forces in a bid to restore it to its place of honour on cheese boards around the country.

The campaign, which has adopted the logo of a winking Cheshire cat with a wry grin, is being backed by British dairy farmers through the Milk
Development Council.

Cheshire cheese is Britain’s oldest named cheese and during the 19th century it was produced by hundreds of farmers throughout Cheshire and
North Shropshire for shipment to London and the rest of the country.

But, after the Second World War production slumped as milk was used for consumption in towns and cities and Cheshire cheese gradually lost its
number-one spot to an “interloper” - Cheddar.

“Now we are determined to give Cheshire cheese a kick start and see it restored to its rightful place among the truly great named cheeses,” says Justin Beckett, of Belton Cheese just over the Cheshire border at Whitchurch. “We are now one of only six producers of traditional
Cheshire cheese and, as a result, there has even been a decline in the market within our own heartland.”

To reverse the trend, Belton Cheese – who have produced traditional Cheshire cheese on their farm for three generations - has now teamed up
with Joseph Heler Ltd of Nantwich and The Cheese Company of Malpas to launch the Cheshire cheese revival project. “Our collective aim is to
raise the profile of Cheshire cheese.”