“Our cheese wouldn’t taste the same made anywhere else” - Blacksticks Blue producer on special ingredients
A Lancashire cheese producer known nationwide has hailed the county’s rain, soil and farming as “unmatched ingredients” in its success.
Matthew Hall, fourth-generation owner of Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses, behind the likes of Blacksticks Blue and Sunday Best, said Lancashire’s famously wet weather plays a far greater role in flavour than most people realise.
He said: “Our county’s steady rain and clay-heavy soil create grass that is rich, lush and naturally more acidic. That acidity makes a real difference to the way our cheese develops. This means we can use less added starter culture and let the process follow a more natural path. It is farmhouse cheesemaking at its simplest, shaped directly by the land around us. Our cheese wouldn’t taste the same anywhere else.”
Butlers makes its cheese with milk from its own herd and neighbouring farms within just a few miles of the dairy in Inglewhite, a supply chain Matthew says is essential to quality. “You could count the miles our milk travels on one hand,” he says. “Fewer miles mean fewer hands, fewer steps and fewer unknowns. We know the farms, we know the people, and we know exactly how the cows, goats and sheep are looked after. That trust flows straight into the quality of the cheese.”
Generational knowledge remains at the heart of Butlers’ approach, with several team members having learned from parents and grandparents who worked in the dairy before them. “That kind of knowledge is built over time, it’s not rushed,” says Matthew. “It’s skilled people doing things properly - stirring curds, turning cheeses and tasting every batch until it’s spot on.”
Lancashire community
Matthew says the business has felt the strength of the Lancashire community more than ever in the past two years, following the devastating fire at its Longridge offices and packing site just before Christmas 2023. “The local community really showed up for us in the days, weeks and months after the fire, and they continue to do so as we build back. We’ll emerge stronger than ever because of the Lancashire people we have in our corner.”
About Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses
Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses is a multi-award-winning, fourth-generation family cheesemaker, established in 1932 in rural Lancashire. Combining traditional skills, innovation and a love of cheesemaking, Butlers hand makes specialist British hard, blue and soft cheeses with cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk from the family herd and local farms.
Butlers makes some of Britain’s best-loved cheeses – from classic Lancashire like Sunday Best, to Kidderton Ashgoat’s cheese, Parlick sheep’s cheese, and creamy soft cheeses like Button Mill and Tunworth – a continental-style cheese revered by the UK’s leading chefs, Michelin-starred restaurants and premium independent retailers.
Butlers is perhaps best known for its flagship blue cheese brand, Blacksticks – a modern, versatile blue cheese and two-star Gold Great Taste Award winner, known for its creamy texture, distinctive orange colour and irresistible blue bite.Butlers supplies all major UK supermarkets and independent retailers.