The Cheese Trail

Cheese making has a long tradition in Wales. Early cheeses resembled the famous Caerphilly and were immersed in brine. The very same cheese was used as part of the divorce settlement under the laws of Hywel Dda. It seems that the cheese in brine went to the wife and the cheese which was hung up, went to the husband.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries goat and sheep milk was being replaced by cows' milk. Records exist which show that in the twentieth century some sheep were still being milked. This milk was mixed with cows' milk that had been skimmed to make butter and thus the eating quality of the cheese was improved.

During the 1939-45 war and for some years afterwards the making of Caerphilly cheese was prohibited. The Milk Marketing Board for England and Wales operated a Farmhouse Cheesemakers Scheme, whereby certain cheesemakers were contracted to make cheese - Cheddar, Cheshire and Lancashire. Most of these were in England, but there were a few who made Cheshire in North East Wales. All the cheese made under this scheme was graded and sold through designated cheese factors. Special arrangements were made for producers wishing to make Caerphilly and Double Gloucester.

The Farmhouse scheme in England and Wales ceased in 1987 and new arrangements came into being, making it easier to make and sell farmhouse cheese. A milk quota scheme was introduced in the European Community in 1984 and this was the impetus for many farms to use their surplus milk by making farmhouse cheese.

Much of the milk produced on Welsh farms was at first sent by rail to London. Then the opportunity was taken to develop and install new technologies in the Welsh creameries, many of them the first in the UK. The CWS factory at Corwen had the first BelSiro equipment from Australia. In 1971 the first of the new generation of mechanised cheesemaking units was built at Newcastle Emlyn with one tonne presses and boxes for maturing at Johnstown. A new creamery was opened at Maelor in 1977 and closed as a cheesemaking unit in 1993, with the site being devoted to the prepacking of cheese. Many creameries have been closed but those remain ing are in the forefront of cheesemaking, making product which is sought after worldwide.

South East Wales has also had its pioneers with some of the best recognised cheeses being produced at Abergavenny,  and Caerphilly cheese being manufactured after many years absence, in the town of Caerphilly.  Mid Wales features large and small dairies, and is home to a British Champion of Champion cheese makers.  North Wales, and in particular the Lleyn Peninsula has a well established reputation for cheese production.