The Davidstow Creamery is a manufacturing plant in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

; it makes ''Cathedral City'' mature

Cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. Cheddar originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. C ...

. It is the largest cheese factory in the UK, and the largest mature cheddar plant in the world.

History

The site is on a windswept hill top, and began in 1950. The site was bought by the Milk Marketing Board in 1979; in 1980 the processing division was divested as the new company

Dairy Crest Saputo Dairy UK Limited is a holding company for Dairy Crest Limited, 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 ...

. In 2002 the site employed 174. In 2019, Dairy Crest was bought by the Canadian company Saputo Inc.

Environmental concerns

On 22 June 2022,

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 The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and en ...

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.

Construction

The boiler house was added in 1968. The site was expanded in 1984 and 2001. A £55m redevelopment opened in 2005.

Visits

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

visited the site on Tuesday 12 July 2011 to open a new £4.2m biomass plant. It is a waste wood biomass plant for high pressure steam. Two Byworth boilers produce 7000 kg/hr of steam at 23 bar, with

Endress+Hauser Endress+Hauser (Endress and Hauser) is a Swiss-based globally operating process and laboratory instrumentation and automation supplier. The family company achieved net sales of approximately 2.9 billion euros in 2021 with a total workforce of more ...

energy monitoring. The boiler plant was built by Leadbitter from May 2010 to April 2011.

Structure

It is situated at the junction of the A39 and A395 in northern Cornwall.

Production

It makes 45,000 tonnes of cheese a year. The cheese is taken from Davidstow to the national distribution centre at Nuneaton in north-east

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, where it is stored for 12 months to mature.''Times'' Friday 19 April 2013, page 44 Dairy Crest also had made Cathedral City at its Maelor Creamery cheese packing plant, which opened in 1976 at

Marchwiel Marchwiel ( cy, Marchwiail) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It is about 2 miles south-east of Wrexham city on the A525 road towards Bangor-on-Dee. The community has an area of 1,488 hectares and a population of 1, ...

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 Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, do ...

. Around 400 farmers supply milk to the site. Cheese made includes

Cathedral City Cheddar 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. History Cathedral City is produced at Davidstow i ...

and

Davidstow Cheddar 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. Production Cheddar has been produced at Davidstow for over 60 years, the ...

References

{{British cheeses * Buildings and structures in Cornwall Cheesemakers Companies based in Cornwall Cornish cuisine Dairy products companies of the United Kingdom Food manufacturers of England Manufacturing plants in England