Person with a white overcoat and blue hairnet holding a wheel of cheese in a room full of shelves of cheesewheels

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Locally sourced cheese

Cheesemakers of Canterbury

Based at Lamberhurst Farm in Dargate, just a few miles from our Faversham Brewery, Cheesemakers of Canterbury supply our pubs with artisan cheeses.

Jane Bowyer already had over 20 years in the dairy business under her belt when she established Cheesemakers of Canterbury in 2007. She knew from her own experience that Kent boasted excellent milk, cream and butter, but that it was limited in locally produced, naturally rinded, unpasteurised cheeses.

Cheesemakers of Canterbury employee using a cheese press

Blessed are the cheesemakers

A cheesemaking couple in Wiltshire who were planning to retire passed on their skills, equipment, and the traditional recipe for Ashmore cheese, which began life in a smallholder's text book by the North of Scotland College of Agriculture.

Jane’s old dairy at Lamberhurst Farm was fully refurbished and her small but merry band of “blessed cheesemakers” got down to work. Six months later, the first batch was ready to go to market. It is now home to the award-winning Ashmore Farmhouse and Kelly’s Canterbury Goat cheeses as well as a wide selection of other unpasteurised and pasteurised varieties.

“We have had our fair share of recognition. International, national and Kentish awards have come our way.
“All very flattering, but it is all the small shops, the pubs, cafes and restaurants in and around Kent that took up our cheeses and introduced them to all their customers that helped launch us, and have kept our cheeses under the noses of both returning and new customers in the years since.
“These are hand-made cheeses. You cannot scale up production to conquer the world. No one is going to get rich from such methods.
“But we get the immense satisfaction of bringing a few moments of pure joy and relish as people taste our cheeses.”
Jane Bowyer

Traditional recipes

“We began with Ashmore, and, as demand for a wider choice gathered, we added more and more. Today we produce our cheeses, cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s cheese in 14 varieties.
“They are still handmade, still using milk from our original suppliers, Debden Court Farm, Petham, and Ellie’s Dairy, Wychling, and with most of the original team of “blessed cheesemakers”.
Jane Bowyer

Cheesemakers of Canterbury