Wensleydale Cheese — The Complete Guide

Wensleydale: The Cheese of the Yorkshire Dales

Yorkshire Wensleydale is one of Britain's most distinctive cheeses — a mild, crumbly white cheese with a honeyed sweetness and a characteristic lemony tang that no other British cheese quite replicates. It comes from the Yorkshire Dales, where the monks of Jervaulx Abbey were making cheese from sheep's milk in the 12th century.

History: From Monks to Wallace and Gromit

The cheese originated with Cistercian monks at Jervaulx Abbey in Wensleydale, who made blue cheese from sheep's milk. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII in the 1530s, the monks' knowledge passed to local dairy farmers, who adapted the recipe using cow's milk and progressively moved towards the white, crumbly style we know today.

By the 19th century, Wensleydale was a well-established Dales cheese, made on hundreds of farms throughout the valley. The Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes — the cheese's spiritual home — was established in 1897 and continues to make Wensleydale today.

The cheese's modern fame owes a significant debt to Nick Park's animated films featuring Wallace and Gromit. Wallace's obsessive love of Wensleydale (most memorably in A Close Shave, 1995) brought the cheese to global attention at a time when the Wensleydale Creamery was in genuine financial difficulty. The resulting publicity is credited with saving the creamery.

Style and Flavour

Fresh, young Wensleydale (3–6 weeks) is:

• Pale white in colour
• Moist and crumbly in texture — breaking into small flakes
• Mild, honeyed, and slightly lactic in flavour
• Lemony tang — a characteristic brightness that distinguishes it from other crumbly cheeses

Aged Wensleydale (3–6 months) becomes firmer, drier, and more savoury, with the crumble giving way to a tighter, flakier texture and a more complex flavour.

The Classic Wensleydale Combinations

The Yorkshire tradition is clear: Wensleydale with fruitcake. The contrast between the milky, slightly salty cheese and the dense, boozy sweetness of a traditional fruit cake is one of the great British food combinations.

The runner-up: Wensleydale with apple pie. There is a Yorkshire saying — "Apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze" — and those who've tried it understand immediately.

Other classic pairings:

• Honey (especially with fresh young Wensleydale)
• Cranberries (the commercial variant is widely available at Christmas)
• Rhubarb (a Dales tradition — the rhubarb triangle of Yorkshire produces exceptional rhubarb)
• Fruitcake — specifically a dense, dark Yorkshire fruit loaf

The Wensleydale Creamery

The Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, North Yorkshire, is the home of the cheese. Visitors can tour the creamery and see cheese being made — one of the most engaging cheese tours in Britain. The Creamery shop sells the full range, including aged versions, smoked varieties, and seasonal fruit-studded versions not available elsewhere.

The Creamery's standard Wensleydale is a reliable, enjoyable cheese. For something more complex, seek out:

• Farmhouse Wensleydale — Made in smaller quantities using traditional methods. Noticeably more complex and moist than the standard version
• Aged Wensleydale — The creamery produces some aged versions that develop a firmer, more savoury character

Variants

Wensleydale with Cranberries

The most commercially successful fruit-studded British cheese. Available year-round but particularly popular at Christmas. The cranberry adds a tart, sweet counterpoint that works well with the mild base cheese.

Wensleydale with Blueberries

A more unusual variant, less widely available but worth seeking out for a different character.

Swaledale

Wensleydale's smaller sibling from the adjacent Swaledale valley. Moister, softer, and with a more pronounced tang. PDO protected in both cow's and goat's milk variants. Worth tracking down through specialist cheesemongers.

Cooking with Wensleydale

Wensleydale is underused in cooking. Its crumbly texture and mild flavour make it an excellent:

• Crumble topping for soups and salads (it adds texture without overpowering)
• Stuffing ingredient in chicken or pork dishes (pairs beautifully with apricot and sage)
• Cheese scone ingredient (its moist crumble creates a particularly good texture)
• Pizza topping — crumbled over the top for the last few minutes of cooking

Wallace was right. Wensleydale is magnificent. Preferably with crackers.