Stichelton Dairy, Collingthwaite Farm

The dairy is built into an old brick barn on the farm itself, and cheesemaker Joe Schneider set it up there deliberately: he wanted to make cheese where the cows are milked, walking over to the parlour each day to talk to the herdsman about what the cows are eating and how the milk is running. The cheese revives the older tradition of making a Stilton style cheese from unpasteurised milk, a practice the remaining Stilton dairies gave up.

The make is slow and by hand, from the starter and rennet through slow drainage, milling, rubbing up, maturation and piercing. A small team of named cheesemakers and milkers works the dairy and the parlour. The cheese has been written up everywhere from the New York Times to the Financial Times, and sells through the online shop and stockists across the country.