The Story Behind Our Ribblesdale Cheese

Behind every slither of cheese, there is a story. We pride ourselves here at Love Cheese with our Artisan Cheese sourced from many creameries local to North Yorkshire, further in the UK and across the seas to France.

The cheese tale today starts with The Ribblesdale Cheese Company with Stuart, Iona, Malcolm, quite a few goats and two very special pigs, Penny and Snouter.

Here at Love Cheese, we stock some of their delicious goat’s cheeses such as Mature, Original, Smoked Original and Natural Rinded mature (nick-named Goatisan).

Click here to see their video on how Ribblesdale cheese is made!

Believe it or not, this creamery is just a two person show. Stuart and Iona have been working since 2006 to make Ribblesdale as delicious as it is on a cracker! Their little cheesery is tucked away at the bottom of Hawes, North Yorkshire and is a family business that began with Iona’s uncle, Ian Hill in 1978.

Their cheese journey begins with two goats, Victoria and Maude, named after Ian Hill’s mother. On being gifted some money to “please do something useful”, Ian chooses to go out and invest in two goats to everyone’s dismay! Luckily, these goats were in kid and were soon producing milk…and Riddlesdale cheese was born!

The herd grew and grew and Ian went from supplying to friends, to local shops and onto wholesalers.

Sadly Ian Hill passed away in 2006, but the legacy continued. Iona, his niece, succeeded the throne and have been pushing Riddlesdale Cheese into more success since then.

With not a crumb of cheese know-how to start with, Iona tells us how she moved from the world of law and finance into the realm of cheese-makery! Iona had lots of help from Lancashire Cheese Makers who were always on-hand for cheese-related advice! By 2014, the business has heavily evolved but still very much captures their authentic beginnings and the memory of Ian Hill, not forgetting dear Victoria and Maude.

Many exciting ventures lay ahead for the Ribblesdale Cheese Company. Iona has the privilege of judging on a panel at the Nantwich Show in July this year! We also have an exciting new Packaging Project arriving in store tomorrow from Ribblesdale – a professionally designed box, designed to grab & go, filled with hand-cut and hand-packed cheeses. Pop in and try a box on your way to work tomorrow for a slice of Ribblesdale on your break!

We hope you enjoyed delving into the secrets of where our cheese begins it’s journey…

We hope Stuart and Iona know how much we appreciate being able to stock their delicious products on our shelves to share everyday!

See even more of Stuart and Iona’s story here and more about the products they produce >>>> Click here to see their Product Range

Keep an eye out on the blog & social media for the next shout out to one of our beloved creameries.