Cheese

Click on any of these photos to see it enlarged, along with its description.

Photos: supplied by Jane Murray.

A letter from Prince Charles, later known as King Charles III:

Thanks to Jane Murray and Martin Cavicchioni for sight of this document.

Jane Murray has written the following description and history of this cheese-making business:

Initially, I started milking a handful of Friesland dairy sheep in 1986, which soon increased to a flock of 60. In 1999, after nearly a year of trying to develop a cheese recipe, with varying success, I eventually started production of Norfolk White Lady. This was the first cheese produced commercially in Norfolk and the county name was naturally included in the name of the cheese. “White Lady” was chosen because my sheep were my white ladies in the surrounding black fen of south-west Norfolk. The cheese has a bloomy white surface mould & I was one of very few “lady” cheesemakers in the country at that time. These factors all contributed to the name I chose for my cheese.
The following year I developed the recipe for the hard, manchego¹ styled Wissington cheese. This name was chosen due to the dominance of the Wissington sugar beet factory on the skyline of the surrounding fens where I lived at that time.
Both of these cheeses gained silver awards at the British Cheese Awards.
In 2008 I sold my dairy sheep & relocated the cheese business to Willow Farm, Deopham, where I developed the mild & creamy Deopham Blewe. This was very well received & completed my “cheeseboard” selection.
After 23 years of increasing cheese making success, I sold my business at the end of 2021 & looked forward to retirement. In my final year of production I “churned out” 22,000 small & 4,000 kg of Norfolk White Lady cheeses, 750kg of Wissington & 350kg of Deopham Blewe, making a total of 9,500 kg of cheese. The invaluable help for which I was so grateful was from my husband, Martin, who was my right-hand man & worked almost as many hours as I did, in spite of it being a far cry from engineering & motorbikes! Tina Darkins was amazing as the wrapper of my Norfolk White Lady & I’m sure she could have done them blindfolded by the time she wrapped her last cheese!
I sold my business to a farming family from Hockwold² & the cheesemaking has returned to within seven miles from where it all began, way back in 1999….. a wonderful new chapter has begun….

The EDP published an article on the subject of Deopham cheese making here, from which the following photo of the cheesemaker is taken:

Notes

Wikipedia describes Manchego as “a cheese made in the La Mancha region of Spain from the milk of sheep of the Manchega breed. It is aged between 60 days and 2 years. Manchego has a firm and compact consistency and a buttery texture, often containing small, unevenly distributed air pockets.” ↩︎
There are details of Wilton Farm here. ↩︎

Date	Change
28/9/23	Revised letter from Prince Charles
8/9/23	Substantial additions thanks to input from Jane Murray
19/8/23	Links to EDP and Willow Farm
29/9/22	Published