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Cheese
factfile
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Long Clawson Dairy, •
Tuxford and Tebbutt, •
Webster’s
Dairy, •
Cropwell Bishop Creamery, Tel: (0115) 892350 •
Colston Bassett Dairy, •
Millway Foods, |
| Good food - part of the Melton's great heritage | |
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King Stilton rules over all the English cheeses |
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The other half of Melton’s food empire is Stilton cheese, that mature blue veined goodness which is called the King of all cheeses. The first evidence of a cheese resembling Stilton was a creamy concoction being made in Wymondham in the 12th century. But this probably would have been made using the milk of ewes and not cows which Stilton is made from. About 200 years later monks at the Priory in Kirby Bellars may have made a blue-veined cheese from cows’ milk similar to today’s product. But a farmer’s wife in Wymondham, Frances Pawlett, is credited by most as being the creator of Stilton cheese. Her cheese was sold by her brother-in- |
law at his pub the Bell Inn in Stilton, Cambridgeshire, and in 1727 the writer Daniel Defoe is quoted as saying he passed through Stilton, a town famous for cheese. Production of Stilton exploded in the 19th century with most farms in the Melton and Vale of Belvoir making Stilton. The first factory operation that produced Stilton was opened in 1875 in Beeby and was soon followed by other organisations. One of the first to open in the Melton area was Webster’s at Saxelbye which around 125 years later is still making Stilton. As well as Saxelbye there are five other dairies still making Stilton at Long Clawson, Colston Bassett, Cropwell Bishop, Harby and in the town itself by Tuxford |
and Tebbutt in Thorpe End. But it was one of the founders of the aforementioned dairies who tried to have the Stilton name changed. According to Jack Brownlow’s book Melton Mowbray Queen of the Shires William Thorpe Tuxford made an impassioned plea for a change at a public meeting on October 28 in 1854. Tuxford
apparently told a crowd: “The finest and most splendid cheese
in the world is made within a circuit of 10 miles of this place,
Melton being the centre. The
cheese is called Stilton but from this time I say call it Meltonian
Cream Cheese.” Obviously the idea didn’t catch on and the Melton area is rich with dairies producing Stilton for the rest of the world. |
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