King Stone Dairy will not make sheep’s milk cheeses this year as it “dials down” on cow’s milk with a new Langres-style cheese and pasture mapping project on Manor Farm in Gloucestershire.
The company, which makes Rollright, Ashcombe, Yarlington, Burford and Moreton, started making sheep’s milk cheeses in 2024 with the Ossau-Iraty-style Bibury and soft lactic Hidcote, using milk from the flock previously owned by Berkswell producer Ram Hall Dairy. But cheesemaker David Jowett will now focus exclusively on cheeses made with cow’s milk from the farm. He is currently developing a new version of Evenlode, which has been out of production for three years, but is returning as a wrinkly, washed rind cheese similar to Langres.
Jowett and farm owner Seb Clarke have also embarked on a project to map the farm’s different grazing paddocks, recording information on plant varieties, rotation cycles and weather. The information will be used to improve pastures and milk quality in the long term. A new cow shed has also been built to improve animal welfare and milk consistency during the winter.
“It makes sense for us to dial down on cheeses using the milk from here, rather than buying in from outside,” said Jowett. “We might bring back sheep’s cheeses in the future, but we want to really focus on what’s happening on the farm. We found that some of our best Burfords last year were made when the cows were in particular parts of the farm, so pasture mapping could help us understand why.”
King Stone’s cheeses received 17 medals at the British and Irish Cheese Awards, including Reserve Champion and Best Export Cheese for Yarlington.
This article first appeared in the May 2026 issue of Fine Food Digest.
