Mary Holbrook (1939 – 2019) was a British

cheesemaker Cheesemaking (or caseiculture) is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrate ...

and curator. She studied

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and worked in museums before retiring to work on her family farm in

Timsbury, Somerset Timsbury is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in England, in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority of the county of Somerset. It lies south-west of Bath, Somerset, Bath, close to the Cam Brook river. The paris ...

, England, where she kept

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s and pigs. The goats were

milked Milking is the act of removing milk from the mammary glands of cattle, water buffalo, humans, goats, sheep, and, more rarely, camels, horses, and donkeys. Milking may be done by hand or by machine, and requires the animal to be currently or rec ...

to make a variety of

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

s which were sold through gourmet outlets such as

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

and

Neal's Yard Dairy Neal's Yard Dairy is a London artisanal cheese retailer, wholesaler and (formerly) cheesemaker in London, which was founded by Nicholas Saunders and Randolph Hodgson in 1979. It has been described as "London's foremost cheese store." As of ...

. Holbrook held a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

and

and previously worked cataloguing early scientific instruments in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and as a curator at a museum in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

. She later turned to dairy farming at Sleight Farm in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, part of her husband John Holbrook’s family estate. She began making goat cheese in the mid-1970s with surplus milk from two goats, initially selling through local health food shops. Inspired by French artisanal cheesemaking, she adopted their moulds and techniques, contributing to a wave of women-led farmhouse cheesemaking in the UK alongside figures such as Veronica Steele and Giana Ferguson. Her cheeses included Little Rydings and Emlett, which were eventually stocked by

. Following her husband's death in 2002, Holbrook divided her time between Somerset and London, delivering cheese to

and supplying meat and cheese to London restaurants such as Lyle's. She remained actively involved in overseeing her products at Neal’s Yard Dairy.

References

External links

Mary Holbrook at Sleight Farm
– visit by Neal's Yard Dairy Cheesemakers British curators 1939 births 2019 deaths People from Somerset {{cheese-stub