Davidstow Creamery | |
---|---|
![]() Seen in March 2008 | |
Former names | Dairy Crest Davidstow |
General information | |
Type | Cheese factory |
Architectural style | Factory |
Address | Davidstow, Cornwall, PL32 9XW |
Coordinates | 50°39′00″N4°37′59″W / 50.65°N 4.633°W |
Elevation | 300 m (984 ft) |
Current tenants | 200 staff |
Construction started | 1950 |
Completed | 2005 |
Cost | £55m (2005) |
Owner | Saputo Dairy UK |
The Davidstow Creamery is a manufacturing plant in Cornwall; it makes Cathedral City mature Cheddar cheese. It is the largest cheese factory in the UK, and the largest mature cheddar plant in the world.
The site is on a windswept hill top, and began in 1950. The site was started by Dried Milk Products Ltd, in Camelford Rural District. [1] Cheese manufacture would begin in 1951. [2] Another site was at Newcastle Emlyn, in West Wales, which closed in 1983, and a plant at Lostwithiel in south Cornwall, which later included a clotted cream plant, when production was transferred from St Blazey in the late 1960s, [3] which itself closed in March 1991. [4]
After the formation of Unigate in 1959, further afield there were creameries in Dorrington, Shropshire, Great Torrington in north-west Devon, and St Erth (former United Dairies) in west Cornwall.
The site competed at the Royal Dairy Show in London, and the International Cheese Awards at Acton, Cheshire
Under Dairy Crest Foods, other creameries were at Sturminster Newton, which closed in 2000, and at Cannington, Somerset, which now makes yoghurt for Yeo Valley, and a site at Ellesmere, Shropshire, which made Cheshire cheese until 1987; the area around North Shropshire is also a main dairy industry supplier, with St Ivel making cheese at Whitchurch, Shropshire. By the late 1980s Dairy Crest Foods made a quarter of all the cheese eaten in the UK. [5]
The site was bought by the Milk Marketing Board in 1979; in 1980 the processing division was divested as the new company Dairy Crest. In 1993 Dairy Crest decided to make Davidstow its main cheese manufacturing site, and invest £6m. [6] In 2002 the site employed 174.
In 2019, Dairy Crest was bought by the Canadian company Saputo Inc. [7]
On 22 June 2022, Dairy Crest was found guilty of environmental offences over a five-year period and fined £1.5 million. This is the largest fine ever awarded for an Environment Agency conviction in the South West of England. The pollution affected the River Inny, Cornwall and included releasing a harmful biocide into the river on 16 August 2016, killing thousands of fish over a 2-kilometre stretch, and coating the River Inny with a noxious, black sludge for 5 kilometres in 2018, through a release of a mass of suspended solids in July and August 2018. [8]
The boiler house was added in 1968. The site was expanded in 1984 and 2001.
A £55m redevelopment opened in 2005. [9]
It is situated at the junction of the A39 and A395 in northern Cornwall.
It makes 45,000 tonnes of cheese a year. [12]
The cheese is taken from Davidstow to the national distribution centre at Nuneaton in north-east Warwickshire, where it is stored for 12 months to mature. [13]
Dairy Crest also had made Cathedral City at its Maelor Creamery cheese packing plant, which opened in 1976 at Marchwiel in north Wales, which was sold (with other sites that made supermarket cheese) to First Milk in 2006, then closed in 2014. The Maelor site was the largest cheese packer in Europe producing 80,000 tonnes per year. Cathedral City cheese packing moved to Nuneaton in 2009. Dairy Crest also had a former cheese plant at Johnstown, Carmarthenshire.
Around 400 farmers supply milk to the site. Cheese made includes Cathedral City Cheddar and Davidstow Cheddar.
Cheddar cheese is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset, southwest England.
The Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative headquartered in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States. The association manufactures and sells dairy products under the "Tillamook" brand name. Its main facility is the Tillamook Creamery, located two miles north of the city of Tillamook on U.S. Route 101.
Lymeswold cheese (1982–1992) was an English cheese variety. Although many English cheeses are named after regions, Lymeswold's name was the result of a public competition to name it; the winning name may have been derived from an English place name Wymeswold. The cheese was a soft, mild blue cheese with an edible white rind, much like Brie, and was inspired by French cheeses. It was similar to non-branded cheeses sold as Blue Brie. At the time of its launch, it was hailed as "the first new English cheese in 200 years". For the export market, the cheese was branded Westminster Blue, because some non-English speakers had difficulty pronouncing the name Lymeswold.
Saputo Dairy UK, formerly Dairy Crest Limited, is a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian company Saputo Inc bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of the Milk Marketing Board. Its brands include Saputo Dairy UK, Cathedral City Cheddar Cheese, Country Life Butter, Utterly Butterly, Vitalite and Clover.
Davidstow is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is north of Bodmin Moor straddling the A395 road about 3 miles (5 km) north of Camelford. The hamlets of Hallworthy, Hendraburnick, Tremail and Trewassa are in the parish. It was formerly known as Dewstow(e).
Saputo Inc. is a Canadian dairy company based in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1954 by the Saputo family. It produces, markets, and distributes a wide array of dairy products, including cheese, fluid milk, extended shelf-life milk and cream products, cultured products and dairy ingredients and is one of the top ten dairy processors in the world.
Uniq plc was a British food manufacturer. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, it was taken over by Irish foods conglomerate Greencore in 2011.
St Ivel is a brand of dairy products in the United Kingdom, introduced in 1901 by the Yeovil-based dairy company Aplin & Barrett, for use on a range of their products. The company was taken over by Unigate Dairy Company in 1960. Most production sites were in the south west of England and some in Wales. Most of its brands were bought in the beginning of the 2000s by Dairy Crest, following a severe decline in doorstep deliveries of milk – previously a major area of business for Unigate. In 2020 the St Ivel brand was still used for buttermilk produced by Dairy Crest's successor Müller.
United Dairies was a United Kingdom-based creamery, milk bottling and distribution company. The company was formed in 1915 and merged to form Unigate in 1959.
Sturminster Newton railway station was a station in the town of Sturminster Newton, in the English county of Dorset. It was located on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.
Cathedral City is a brand of Cheddar cheese which is manufactured by Saputo Dairy UK in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Cathedral City's brand and logo is based on Wells Cathedral in Somerset.
Cornish cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with Cornwall and the Cornish people. It has been heavily influenced by the geography of the county as well as its social history.
Milk Link was a large dairy company in the United Kingdom. It was the UK's largest dairy cooperative and the UK's largest producer of cheese. In 2012 the company merged with Arla Foods.
Wensleydale Creamery is a cheese manufacturer based in the town of Hawes in North Yorkshire, England. It makes several varieties of cheese, but is most notable as a producer of Yorkshire Wensleydale, a variety of Wensleydale cheese with PGI status. It is a subsidiary of the Canadian dairy company Saputo.
Davidstow Cheddar is a brand of Cheddar cheese manufactured by Dairy Crest, at the Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, alongside Cathedral City Cheddar.
The dairy industry in the United Kingdom is the industry of dairy farming that takes place in the UK.
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