Assisting Jamie to produce the farm’s award-winning cheeses are:
Our Head Cheesemaker on the farm is Stephen Bridges, who has been here since the early Nineties. Steve was with us when we won Best Cheddar and Best Traditional at the British Cheese Awards in both 1996 and 1997 and has been winning awards ever since. He too is from a family of cheesemakers.
In charge of Ogleshield is Tim Griffey (also a very good cheddar maker). He has seen the popularity of the Ogleshield explode with the obvious delights of melted cheese in restaurants and street food. The Jersey milk is tricky stuff with all that fat in it, and mistreating it leads to bitterness and inconsistent cheese.
Also in the cheesemaking team are Steve Furzey and Richard Scott, who help with the heavy work of lifting curds and keeping everything clean.
The Friesian cows are looked after by Graham Davis and Cameron Bridges. Cameron is Steve’s (Head Cheesemaker Steve) son, which can make for some interesting dynamics between milk and cheese.
The Jersey cows have been overseen and cared for by Terry Holly since the mid 80’s. And Terry’s wife, Carole, plays a key role in looking after the newborn Friesian and Jersey calves. Terry used to milk Friesians and came to work for Jamie’s father to get away from cows! When our previous herdsman fell ill, Jamie’s mother persuaded Terry to step in for a few weeks while we found another. Just don’t ask him to milk a Black & White!
Paul Storey does much of the milking of the Jerseys and Duncan Franks helps with keeping the place going and looking after the young stock.
There is another very important team looking after the cheeses in the cheese store.
Steve Furzey and Richard have a lot to do with keeping the Ogleshield washed.
The 5000 cheddar cheeses in store need brushing with a hoover every two weeks to keep the rinds right, so Wayne Mitchell, Billy Ward and Duncan Bridges (another of Steve’s sons) do enough hours between them to keep the cheddars right.
In Winter the cows are fed by someone from the arable team and the silage harvesting hopefully fits nicely with the workload on the rest of the farm. Helping Rory out on the arable side of the farm are Henry Gribble, Harry and Will Franks.
In the Farm Office is Becca Irwin, taking all the orders and enquiries, keeping on top of the admin and generally helping to keep the whole show on the road.
