At Hampshire Cheese Company we are passionate about artisan cheesemongers. Buying cheese with the expert guidance of a specialist cheesemonger, our customers are not only able to buy the perfect cheese for the occasion, but at the desired ripeness, and to really learn the progeny of that cheese.
In this series we will shine the spotlight on our specialist suppliers. Visit, pick up the phone or order online with their expert guidance!
We start with The Courtyard Dairy, based in Yorkshire.
The Courtyard Dairy is a cheese lover’s paradise. Created with the ethos to sell only the best cheese available from the British Isles, and specialising in championing and supporting the remaining independent farmhouse cheese-makers producing great British farmhouse cheese, The Courtyard Dairy concentrates on working with small individual farmers and cheesemakers that still make their cheese by hand with milk from their own herds, in order to get the best depth of flavour and to encourage traditional and sustainable farming practices.
The Courtyard Dairy’s cheese range is intentionally limited – just 35 cheeses, with each one selected to be special, different and pack an amazing punch of flavour – a stand out of specialist cheese. Those who’ve had a chance to buy from us experience, taste and enjoy ‘proper’ cheese.
In their own cheese maturing room near Settle, these rare, hard-to-find cheeses are expertly aged on-site to add an extra depth of flavour. It is then sold to the general public via their specialist shop, mail order and also supplied to top restaurants in the North of England.
The maturing is overseen by renowned cheese ‘affineur’, Andy Swinscoe, who learnt his trade from France’s most prestigious cheese maturers as well as working in top cheese shops in London and Bath.
Commenting on Tunworth, Hampshire Cheese Company’s award winning soft cheese, Andy said:
“Tunworth provides the benchmark for quality soft cheese in the UK. Every self-respecting cheeseboard should have it!”
The Courtyard Dairy’s emphasis on quality has not gone unnoticed with awards from World Cheese Awards (Cheesemonger of the Year); Farm Shop and Deli Awards (Cheesemonger of the Year) and frequent plaudits from the press (in the the Financial Times Top 50 Food Shops in the World), featured on BBC Fred Siriex’s Remarkable Places to Eat and has also been named one of the top 15 cheese shops in the UK by both The Daily Telegraph (2016) and The Times (2017).
