Cheesemaking in Deeping St James

Locally made cheese from Cote Hill Farm, Market Rasen, is now available from the Market Gate Deli, but it turns out that in living memory it was possible to buy cheese made even more locally in Eastgate, Deeping St James!

Records show that cheese was made here from the 1730s by the Bennett family. They owned the land opposite their cottage at 129 Eastgate and on it stood a cheese house constructed of wattle and daub and deeply thatched, which gave it an all-pervading air of coolness – perfect for keeping the cheese. The cheese house was approached by a wide plank of wood over the dyke, and inside the walls were lined with wooden shelves on which the freshly made cheeses were kept. Outside was an orchard of all kinds of fruit trees and over the bank were osier beds.

At the turn of the eighteenth century cheese-making had become commonplace on most farms as the smallholders kept cows to supply villagers with milk. The surplus produced at certain times of the year would be turned into cheese for use later and many regional variations had started to develop, Cheshire being the most popular and sold throughout Britain transported by canal and ship. But locally cheese was still made to be eaten by farmhands and locals, the task undertaken by the wives of smallholders and farmers. This was the case of the Bennett family.

The 20th century and the move to the towns as a result of the industrial revolution saw a decline in farmhouse cheese production but here in Deeping St James, the Bennetts still carried on the age-old tradition. At this time the business was in the hands of Sarah Bennett, the daughter of George and Mary (née Dean). Born in 1881, Sarah married William Hewitt (b.1871) a near neighbour in November 1904. He was the son of butcher Matthew and Phoebe and so the cheese made by William and Sarah had a ready market in the butcher’s shop and on the stall at Stamford Market where Matthew would go each week. When returning home from the market in July 1898 Matthew sustained a serious head injury when his horse shied in Wharf Road, the harness having given way, throwing Matthew out of the cart. Although he recovered his son William took over the butchery business.

Sarah and William resided at number 129. The building, now Grade 2 listed, had a red pantile roof, a neat front garden and a paling fence onto the pavement. The rooms inside were quite small and the dairy was built on the north side of the house facing the big old kitchen across the yard. There were a range of outbuildings across the yard which comprised brick cow stalls and, at the end, a brick-built kitchen with a cast-iron cooking range where Sarah and her predecessors made the cheese. Behind this was an old stone barn. The small holding consisted roughly of ten acres of pasture for the cows. In 1908 their son, William Cecil was born.

Calamity struck in 1911 when William’s seven cows strayed onto the highway on the way to the station. Inspector Ford stayed with them for 20 minutes until Mr Howitt came and drove them along. In spite of his protestations that he had bought the right for his cows to graze on the roadside, William was fined 6d and costs by the Bench.

On Matthew’s death in 1922 William inherited £20 from the estate which was £1083, the rest being divided between his five siblings. William was a community minded man and as well as running the smallholding and milk round he was involved with the Priory Church Workers’ Guild, specifically with money-raising activities, giving prizes and often taking the role of MC at events. Treasurer of the Pig Club and the Cow Club he was also a keen fisherman and like his father before him would spend many hours on the banks of the Welland.

William died in 1937 leaving Sarah to carry on the business with her son who had become an engineers’ clerk as well as assisting his mother. Sarah was noted for the quality of the cheese she had been making for most of her life. The cheeses were the size of a pancake and about half an inch thick, delivered in a basket covered with cloth. She was also renowned for her lemon curd which housewives made into the delicious curd tarts served at the August Feast in the days before the Second World War. Sarah also continued the milk round, her small horse-drawn float with ‘Taffy’ in the shafts, a large milk churn in the centre and several milk buckets with the appropriate half pint and pint measures hanging in each bucket. Taffy knew exactly where to stop for each customer.

After the war, Sarah retired and went to live with her son and his wife Gladys (née Dagley) at Glenbrook (37) Eastgate. Sarah died in 1968 at Stamford hospital, bringing to an end a long life of service and the end of the cheese-making tradition in Deeping St James.

A family of cheese-makers in Lincolnshire are still providing for the people of the Deepings, though, with a selection of award-winning cheeses available at the Market Gate Deli. The Davenports are up country from here – not quite in the Wolds but on undulating lush fields in the small village of Osgodby just outside of Market Rasen, enjoying its own ambient micro climate. Just as fine wine derives its taste from the land in which the grapes are grown so the character of cheese is dependent on the quality of the soil and grass on which the cattle graze.

Peter and Cynthia Davenport bought this small dairy farm of 184 acres in the 1960s milking between 70 and 80 cows largely

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Friesian but with some Brown Swiss cows (similar to Jerseys but sturdier, adding quality to the milk). When their son Michael and teacher wife Mary took over the farm they resisted the trend to develop the farm into a much bigger enterprise, preferring to cut costs but maintain the timehonoured tradition of hand milking and to try and derive more value from the milk produced.

In order to maximise the value from the milk, Michael embarked on a cheese-making course about 15 years ago and developed the brand of Cote Hill Farm Cheeses, handmade on the farm: artisan cheese in the truest sense of the word. The morning milk at the farm is taken direct from the cows into the cheese production facility to be handcrafted into Cote Hill Blue, Cote Hill Yellow and Cote Hill Red. Using the milk directly from the cow to the vat and not pasteurising allows the cheeses to develop their own unique flavour.

This initiative has certainly paid dividends: as well as selling milk to a dairy in Lancashire where it is made into powdered milk and exported, the cheese has opened new horizons for the farm which now employs Michael and Mary’s sons Joe and Ross as well as a herdsman, making the operation of the farm on this scale much more sustainable.

The herd live in this rural idyll until the natural end of their days – some living up to 12 years. Each has their own name, number and personality, knowing the hierarchy in which they enter the milking parlour. If they deviate from this then it is easy to identify and act on a potential problem. Periwinkle, a favourite has just calved. Any calves surplus to the herd are sold to a neighbouring farmer for beef, humanely transported and reared together.

As well as selling direct from their website the farm also supplies a number of retail outlets and from the Cheese Shed on the farm where a series of vending machines deliver milk, cheese and other local produce; Plum Bread, Jenny’s Jams, Stokes Tea and Coffee in a contactless way that provides a healthy and safe environment.

Watching cows grazing as they have done through the centuries is balm to the soul, and eating the cheese produced by hand is a completion of the circle!