🧀 Wakebridge Manor Cheese – Award‑Winning Farmhouse Cheese from Derbyshire

Locally produced in Crich, Derbyshire, just a few miles from our farm, Wakebridge is a clothbound, pressed sheep’s milk cheese that is close‑textured, creamy, and savoury with a gentle hint of sweetness.

Matured traditionally on wood, it develops a beautifully balanced flavour and character that has earned it top national recognition:

🏆 International Cheese & Dairy Awards – Champion UK Sheep Milk Cheese 2024

🏆 ICDA – Best Novice Cheesemaker 2024

In 2020, John and Heather retired from their careers as veterinarians to pursue a lifelong dream of sheep farming, with a vision to create artisan cheese from ewes milked on site. They chose a disused former dairy farm in the rolling Derbyshire countryside — a location steeped in history, with evidence of a moated medieval manor house and chapel, and records of cheesemaking dating back to the 1800s.

Over the next three years, they built a modern cheesemaking facility alongside a bespoke new‑build milking parlour for their 600 beautiful East Friesian sheep. Their journey was even featured on Ben Fogle: Make a New Life in the Country in 2022.

Today, Wakebridge Manor Cheese is truly a family business — John and Heather’s daughter and her husband care for the sheep, their son crafts the cheese, and their son‑in‑law runs the cheesemaking side of the operation. Every wheel is a testament to passion, heritage, and craftsmanship.