Cheese saved from extinction by deli’s efforts

Cheesemongers Cryer & Stott has managed to add Coverdale to its menu, a crumbly treat first created in the Yorkshire Dales in the early 20th century.

After being put out of production by the Wensleydale Dairy earlier this year, Cryer & Stott has now taken the original recipe and is working with a small dairy, Home Farmer, to put it back into production, albeit on a smaller scale.

Jemma Ladwitch business development manager of Cryer & Stott said: “We could not let this amazing cheese steeping in over 100 years of history disappear, we had to do something about it.

“Home Farmer are a fairly-new artisan dairy based in the heart of the dales with their own herd of cows, they were the perfect choice to make the newly revived authentic Coverdale for us.”

First created by Alfred Rowntree’s dairy in the Dales village of Coverham, it ended up under the control of the Milk Marketing Board in the 1980s and in 2000, the dairy for was taken on by Wensleydale.

However, the famous dairy took the decision to discontinue the cheese earlier this year.

An unpasteurised six-week-old crumbly cheese, Coverdale is clothbound, has a natural mould rind and a spongy texture with what has been described as a subtle tang.

And demand for the cheese is already outstripping supply with customers having to add their names to a waiting list.

Mr Rowntree opened the first dairy in 1906 in Masham, well known for producing the Wensleydale Blue and Wensleydale.

In 1912 the company moved to the Coverham Dairy, which is where the Coverdale cheese originated.

The creamery continued to make the cheese until the line was discontinued in early 2020.

Cryer & Stott launched the newly-revived Coverdale at the Welcome to Yorkshire Ian Woosnam Senior Classic Golf Tournament last week and the cheese received rave reviews from some famous faces including footballer Robbie Fowler and cricketer Ryan Sidebottom.