A new sheep and goats’ cheese company has launched on the Holker Estate in Cumbria following the demise of St James Cheese, which was well known for its eponymous washed rind cheese.
St James was set up by Martin Gott and Nicola Robinson in 2006 and made St James, Ingot and Crookwheel using raw milk from its own sheep and goats. But the company is no longer in operation after Gott and Robinson separated last year and the animals were sold.
Since then, Gott has moved to Oman in the Middle East to work at an organic dairy, while Robinson has started making cheese on her own at the estate, buying in milk from the farms that acquired St James’ livestock last year.
The new company, called Raven Tree Cheese, has launched several cheeses, including a square washed rind sheep’s cheese called St Elizabeth and a similar style made with goats’ milk called Ravensworth.
Others in the pipeline include a brick-shaped lactic goats’ cheese called Huginn, a hard sheep’s cheese called Lakeland Dawn and a hard goats’ cheese called Ravenscrag. The company will also make the Reblochon-style St Sundays and halloumi-style Lakes A Lomi – cow’s milk cheeses that were previously made by St James – using milk from nearby Strickley Farm near Kendal.
All the cheeses are made with pasteurised milk and vegetarian rennet. St Elizabeth is named after the patron saint of new beginnings, while Huginn was one of Odin’s ravens. St Elizabeth and Ravensworth, named after a village near where the goats are farmed, are already being stocked by The Courtyard Dairy and Cartmel Cheeses. Robinson is also in talks with Neal’s Yard, The Fine Cheese Co., and Paxton & Whitfield. Cheeses will be available from this month onwards.
“Cheesemaking is what I know and it’s something I really enjoy doing, so I’m so pleased to be back in the dairy and involved in a new project,” Robinson told FFD. “We’ve made the decision to switch to pasteurised milk because we are now buying in milk, but I continue to make my own starter cultures. In taste trials people have struggled to notice the difference.”
Robinson first started making cheese with pioneering goats’ cheesemaker Mary Holbrook in Bath in the 1990s and went on to work at Kirkham’s Lancashire, before setting up St James Cheese with Gott.
This article first appeared in the April 2025 issue of Fine Food Digest.
