"It's a 24-hour a day job": Derbyshire family farm creamery wins big at national Artisan Cheese Awards

At the Artisan Cheese Awards in Melton, Wakebridge Manor Creamery, near Crich, was crowned best small producer and landed the best new cheese prize.

The business is a family project of former vets John Bailey and Heather Benbow, who bought the farm in 2017 and finally rolled out the first Wakebridge cheeses in 2024, primarily using milk from their flock of 200 East Friesian sheep.

But in recent months they have added to the product range with the Derwent, which uses cow’s milk bought in from Peak District farms, and it was that which caught the tastebuds of awards judges.

Dan Mason, the couple’s son-in-law, dairy manager and head cheesemaker, said: “There were times two or three years ago when we thought we’d never get this off the ground so I’m really proud to have got here.

“We won a couple of other things last year but we’d hardly sold any cheese at that point. Now it feels like we’re getting to be an established business, and we’re getting a lot of word-of-mouth.”

Before setting up the dairy, Dan spent a decade making beer for Nottingham’s Cast Rock brewery and dabbled in cheesemaking at home. Though it has been a steep learning curve there are a lot of lessons which apply to both processes.

He said: “You’re always problem-solving, getting hands-on and doing a bit of everything. Sheep’s milk is fairly seasonal so we needed something to make when the ewes aren’t being milked.

“It’s a similar recipe to our sheep’s cheese, all the flavour comes from the milk and the enzymes– there’s nothing added apart from rennet, and the starter culture then it’s all the enzymes and by-products.

“We were going for a Derby-style cheese – some might say it’s like a mature cheddar – but I think the long aging is what makes it really distinctive. It gets more complex and stronger as it matures on wood for 12 months and it has a natural clothbound rind which gives it a really earthy, savoury, punchy flavour.”

Like the Wakebridge, the Derwent also comes in a blue variety threaded with a specially selected strain of mould. Dan oversees every part of the production alongside John and Heather’s son, David Bailey.

He said: “It’s the whole family working together, and it’s a 24-hour a day job. Although I’ve done the cheese side of it, John and Heather are still up through the night in lambing season and looking after the sheep with David, their other daughter and her husband who live on the farm.

“My partner Victoria’s a psychiatric nurse, she’s not employed on the farm, but when I was moaning she was the one who picked up the phone and started ringing around last year making our first sales. There’s nothing big and corporate about it.”

Dan said: “We’re stocked in Chatsworth Farm Shop, the Hartington and Cromford Mill cheese shops, Reunion Deli in Belper and Cheese and Friends in Sheffield, and hopefully these awards will help generate more interest.”

John and Heather still harbour their own hopes of branching out further on the farm with a boutique hotel, restaurant and bar, tapping into the Peak District’s visitor economy and Wakebridge Manor’s heritage dating back to the 1300s via the family of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale.

Dan said: “The planning permission is there but it won’t be happening any time soon. We’re focusing on getting the milk volumes up. For now, this is a cheese business.”

To learn more about the business, go to wakebridgemanor.com or follow Wakebridge Manor Creamery on Facebook and Instagram.