Village Maid Cheese has built a new dairy at its premises near Riseley in Berkshire, which will enable it to more than triple production of Barkham Blue.
The award-winning cheese, which was made by Two Hoots in nearby Barkham, for more than 20 years was acquired by Village Maid earlier this year when Two Hoots founders Sandy and Andy Rose decided to retire. Sandy is the cousin of Village Maid founder Anne Wigmore.
The new dairy, which is adjacent to the existing production space, is due to open this month and measures around 155 sq m. As well as providing room to ramp up production of Barkham Blue, the space will enable Village Maid to increase its milk holding and maturing room capacity by more than double. It will also provide more capacity for Village Maid’s hard cheeses, Spenwood and Heckfield, with extra mature versions of the cheeses now a possibility.
“We always wanted to explore the blue cheese world but never wanted to step on the toes of Two Hoots,” said director Jake Wigmore, son of Anne Wigmore. “When Sandy and Andy announced they wanted to retire and sell their business, it was a good opportunity for us to delve into blue cheese but was also a natural progression for Barkham Blue itself, as we have shared the same Guernsey milk supplier, Lacey’s Family Farm in High Wycombe, for more than 20 years. It sits perfectly in our range. Blue was the missing piece of the puzzle.”
He added that there would be plenty of Barkham Blue available for Christmas, while other plans were in the pipeline to mark the 40th anniversary of Village Maid in 2026.
