A SWEET & CHEESY VISIT

By Gilly Balcombe

We’ve been living in France for some time now but make regular trips back to the UK to see family and friends. On our last journey, we took time out to visit a good friend who lives near Bath and enjoyed a day trip to nearby Cheddar and its famous gorge, a place I’ve never visited. Now coming from a cheese lover, that may sound weird, but I just never got there. This time I did – and it was well worth the detours we had to take to avoid the bits of road where they were ensuring the integrity of the Gorge, as they do every year just before the season gets underway.

Okay, hand on heart I have to say that yes, Cheddar is definitely catering for its many visitors and tourists, but at the same time it’s a really pretty village, the Gorge is spectacular and the caves are just breath-taking. And the cheese…well that’s quite wonderful too.

Before we did anything else, we stopped off at The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company, where we were able to sample a variety of their delicious Cheddar, billed as ‘the only Cheddar made in Cheddar’, and it is scrumptious. Whether you choose classic cave-matured, Vintage, oak-smoked or any other variant on the Cheddar theme, these cheeses, with their nutty, creamy flavour will have you demanding more! They add port, or Somerset cider with garlic and chives, or sun-dried tomato and red onion, or herbs and garlic and even chilli – there’s a Cheddar to suit every palate. Then there are the Cheddar Cheese Straws they make with their yummy cheese –not so much straws as battens. Light and flaky and truly Cheddary.

We also popped ‘round the back’ to watch a bit of cheese-making. The wheels of Cheddar each weigh around 28kg and they’re made in the traditional PICTURE CREDITS: way using fresh, unpasteurised milk from cows that live on local farms, that’s delivered every day. The process itself is no secret: the milk is separated into curds and whey, the whey is drained off and the curd, which is already the fresh cheese, remains. It is then strained, pressed, salted or brine washed. A part of their production is matured in the Cheddar caves themselves, Gough’s Cave being the original historical cheese larder. They’re packed on to metal cages and left for a year or more to mature in an environment where constant temperature and high humidity ensure that the resultant cheese has a unique and complex character. A world apart from the industrially produced Cheddars that are so common nowadays.

By now we were hungry to sample more of this deliciousness and a short walk through the village, alongside the river that runs through it, brought us to The Cheese Cottage Tea Rooms. It was most definitely late elevenses time, we’d had an early (but excellent) breakfast at the lovely Hunters’ Rest pub in Clutton Hill where we were staying, and so we wolfed down warm cheese scones made that morning by Coral, the owner of the Tea Rooms, with vintage Cheddar and tangy chutney. The coffee was good too and everything was beautifully presented using traditional blue and white china. Sublime and not to be missed if you ever go to Cheddar. They also have a gift shop adjacent to the Tea Rooms where they sell a huge variety of local products. More of Coral’s skills and goodies later…

Thus fortified, we headed for Gough’s Cave, the first one to have been excavated in Cheddar, following its discovery by retired sea captain Richard Cox Gough in 1892. All the work was done by hand, from opening up the cave to hauling out the debris. In 1899 electric light was installed in what’s become known as the show cave, the first 820m of Gough’s Cave which is open to the public and which is the only part that’s accessible if you’re not a diver. It contains spectacular rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites, and stunning rock chambers and chimneys. Most of the cave’s length is made up of the Cheddar Yeo river passage, which is only accessible to cave divers. The geology and the scenery inside the caves are fascinating and one can only marvel at the dedication, tenacity and sheer determination of the brave men who pitted themselves against the elements to enable the caves to be seen and enjoyed.

We paid a short visit to Cox’s Cave, which has been turned into a multimedia Son et Lumiere (Sound and Light) experience entitled ‘Dreamhunters: The Adventures of Early Man’. Other attractions are the Museum of Prehistory, a three-mile cliff top walk and Jacob’s Ladder and the Lookout Tower to climb, both providing marvellous views of Somerset and The Mendips. You can wander through the forest walk alongside the village, enjoying the local architecture and some really cute shops. There’s a shop selling beautiful high-quality sheepskin and leather goods (a true family business, with mother and daughter making gorgeous jackets while dad mans the till!), one that specialises in Christmas (quite literally), another that sells nothing but teddy bears and plush toys and at the entrance to the village, stores selling fudge and sweet treats.

Which brought us conveniently back to Coral’s wonderful emporium. A decision had been made not to have lunch, as we’d pigged out on scones and cheese at elevenses, but just to move on to high tea towards the end of the day. More of Coral’s super baking, plain and fruit scones with butter, clotted cream and really fruity jam, as well as tasty freshly made sandwiches. They were just about to close, but Coral’s husband welcomed us anyway and we were very well fed and looked after. She bakes cakes too but we didn’t have any room for those, although they looked fab.

We’d been so keen to drive through the Gorge itself on our way into Cheddar, but were thwarted by the diversion mentioned earlier. What good luck it was that, just as we were about to make our way to the car park by the village duck pond and head back to the pub, the maintenance team finished for the day and removed all the diversion signs. And wow, it is truly magnificent and it was well worth the wait - a wonderful end to a beautiful day.

The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company, The Cliffs, Cheddar, BS27 3QA

The Cheese Cottage Tea Room & Gift Shop, 1 Daghole, Cheddar, BS27 3QJ

Moorcraft Sheepskin & Leather, Daghole, Cheddar, BS27 3QJ

Old Rowlands Christmas Shop, The Cliffs, Cheddar, BS27 3QE

The Gorge Bear Co, Lakeview, The Cliffs, Cheddar, BS27 3QE