Cheddar Gorge says cheese in 2014

The home of Cheddar Cheese has a very tasty anniversary to celebrate in 2014. 

A place where visitors can step back in time, as well as deep underground, the world-famous Cheddar Gorge & Caves is one of the most spectacular natural locations in England, and one of the best loved visitor attractions in the whole of the UK. 

2014, meanwhile, will also mark the 60^th anniversary of Cheddar Cheese.  Not “of all time”, of course - but since the end of rationing, and the year when ‘Government Cheddar’ finally disappeared from the shelves! 

During World War II the government decreed that, as part of the war economies and rationing, only cheese made using a process perfected at Cheddar in Somerset would be available to the British public.  All milk that normally went into making a whole range of cheeses went instead to factories to make ‘Government Cheddar’.  And while this helped Britain get through the war, it also practically wiped-out all farmhouse and artisan manufacture of cheese. 

Cheddar Cheese, named after the actual village of Cheddar where it was ”invented”, has actually been made here for centuries - from around the same time, in the 12^th century, that Henry of Huntingdon was naming Cheddar Gorge in his list of the “Four Wonders of England” (along with the Peak District, Stonehenge and the Lake District). 

Best of all, however, present-day visitors to Cheddar Gorge & Caves can witness the results of around 25 years of consecutive Cheddar Cheese production, on the same premises in the historic Gorge. 

The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company (www.cheddargorgecheeseco.co.uk) - now, the one-and-only maker of Cheddar Cheese in Cheddar itself - matures its cheeses in the Gorge’s impressive show caves which, over the centuries, has welcomed visitors from all parts of the globe. 

And the attraction’s obvious associations with one of the nation’s favourite foods continues to put a cheesy grin on the faces of visitors to this day. 

Visitors to the Gorge can enter the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company shop and dairy to gain a behind-the-scenes glimpse exactly what it takes to produce award-winning Cheddar Cheese.  And everyone who enters the Cheddar Gorge show caves will then actually see master cheese-maker John Spencer’s cheeses maturing deep inside the perfectly chilled interiors. 

Cheddar Cheese itself remains the most popular cheese in the United Kingdom, and it accounts for 51% of the country's cheese market, estimated to be in the region of £1.9-billion. 

For further information, visit www.cheddargorge.co.uk and www.cheddargorgecheeseco.co.uk.