Ambitious Derbyshire sheep dairy project ready to roll out first two cheeses

John Bailey and his wife Heather Benbow sold their private veterinary practice in 2017 and bought the 240-acre Wakebridge Manor Farm, on the border of Amber Valley and the Derbyshire Dales near Crich, with the ambition to create a cheesemaking visitor attraction and holiday destination – with no previous experience in the food manufacturing sector.

Their journey since has taken many twists and turns through Brexit, a pandemic and soaring inflation, but the creamery’s first products are now in the hands of regulators to gain the necessary accreditations before going on the market to wholesalers, delicatessens, hotels, and direct to consumers by late spring or early summer.

Heather said: “It was always going to be a gradual process to build up our flock, plan and develop the infrastructure, learn how to make the cheeses and bring them to market, and make sure we got it right at every stage.

“Our starting point was to choose 160 East Freisian ewes because they’re the best milking sheep in the world, and today we now milk over 500 ewes bred from the original flock. Ultimately, we would like to be milking 1,400 ewes to produce the quantity of cheese we are aiming for.”

John added: “The challenges so far have been the time it has taken to get planning permission – six months to prepare the application and another six months for the planning to go through.

“Then the pandemic seriously delayed the arrival of the cheesemaking equipment we had to import from the Netherlands. And external factors such as inflation caused by the war in Ukraine has pushed building costs through the roof, and almost doubled our anticipated spend.”

By July last year, they were finally in a position to begin making a hard white cheese, ‘Hey Ewe’, and a blue cheese similar to Roquefort called ‘Blue Baa-bara’, both said to be of the highest quality, exceptionally creamy and rich in flavour.

Their ultimate goal is to produce 70 tonnes of cheese a year but it takes 6,000 litres of milk to make a tonne of cheese, and over a six-to-eight-month lactation, each ewe is expected to produce around 350 litres of milk, so the scale of the Wakebridge farming and milking operation is formidable.

Currently milking just once a day in their purpose-built 18-stand herringbone parlour but the family aims to progress to milking twice a day as soon as possible.

Though it may have taken longer than expected to reach this point, the family’s other dreams for diversifying the farm are still very much in the pipeline, with planning permission in place for the conversion of the grade II listed 18th century farm buildings into a boutique hotel, bar and restaurant.

John and Heather’s daughter, Hannah, and her partner, Jay, help with the farming and the intensive workload of managing the growing flock, with lambing three times a year, plus a small herd of Hereford suckler cows.

Responsibility for developing the cheeses has fallen to the couple’s son David and son-in-law Dan, who have employed a consultant to learn the skills required. The business currently employs two other members of staff in the on-site dairy.

The sheep are reared on grass and herbal leys, and the farm produces its own silage to feed the animals in an effort to ensure its operations are carbon neutral and qualify for the Government’s Sustainable Farming Incentive payments for what is thought to be one of the first sheep’s milk enterprises of its type in the country.

Initial funding came from the family’s own investment, and an EU food processing grant secured before Brexit, but the delays and unforeseen costs forced John and Heather to seek external support.

That help was not forthcoming from their previous bank, so they turned instead to Virgin Money, which has provided funding in excess of £1million and an overdraft facility to keep the project on track.

The medieval manor house and chapel that gave the farm its name may be long since gone, but Jonathan believes that John and Heather are giving the location a brilliant new future.

He said: “This project was born out of John and Heather’s own love of sheep’s cheese, but it has grown into a very significant and innovative example of successful farm diversification.

“They are reviving skills that have largely been lost in the UK and meeting a growing market demand for a high value food product.”

He added: Wakebridge Manor Farm is also set to become an important new business in the local rural economy, and eventually it will create between 20 and 30 new jobs. It’s a privilege for Virgin Money to able to support this family turn their dream into a viable and sustainable reality.”

For updates on Wakebridge Manor Cheeses, go to www.wakebridgemanor.com.

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