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Heritage

The Barbers were making cheese on our family farm before Queen Victoria took the throne. Nearly 200 years later, the family are still here, in the heart of the West Country, milking cows and producing award-winning, traditional cheddar.

Back in 1833, Daniel Barber started making cheese at Maryland Farm, just a few miles from the village of Cheddar and deep in the heart of rural Somerset.

Six generations later and the Barbers are still on the same farm — now the oldest surviving cheddar-makers in the world. It’s still very much a family affair, with cousins Anthony, Chris, Charlie and Giles running the business today.

Back in Daniel’s day, he made cheese mainly for his family and farm workers. But, over the generations, the Barber's passion for cheesemaking grew — our great-grandmother Polly even made cheese on the day she gave birth! As our cheese became popular, more milk was needed and, by the 1950s, our grandfathers, Jack and Gerald, began working with neighbouring farmers to meet demand.

Today, we farm around 3,000 acres, grazed by more than 2,500 cows. We’re proud to still work with local farmers too — over 100 now. Farming and cheesemaking have long been vital parts of the local economy and we’re committed to seeing this continue.

 

We’re determined to keep authentic cheddar-making alive too, so combine time-honoured techniques with innovation. We retain a unique collection of traditional starter cultures and use age-old ‘cheddaring’ methods, whilst new systems and technology enable us to increase production and maintain quality.