Mendip Profiles > Mendip Brands > Cheddar Cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Although the village of Cheddar lies just immediately to the west of the the district, Mendip has long been a hotbed of cheese production.
The first Cheddar cheeses are said to have been produced in the 12th century in Cheddar. Recently, Cheddar cheese joined the technological age thanks to cheddarvision, where web viewers could watch a cheese maturing in the famous Cheddar caves.
Today this tradition is carried on by many successful producers, notably by the famous farming and racehorse-owning Barber family of Ditcheat.
Barber's production has grown from a small local affair to an award-winning national concern, selling cheese under the Maryland and Haystacks brands principally and concentrating on Cheddar but also producing a variety of other cheeses – the end product of the milk of a 1700 strong herd.
RL Clapp is another dairy farming business whose highly-prized cheese have found a national market. Based in Glastonbury, they are ranked in the UK’s top 50 cheesemakers.
In Frome, the famous Cathedral City brand of Cheddar is produced by the multinational company Dairy Crest. This supermarket favourite was originally made in nearby Wells.
West Country Farmhouse Cheddar – much of which originates from the Mendip area - is one of Britain’s few EU protected brand names.
