Ward Cheeses

Jack Ward was a mixed farmer. He rented a farm in the Yorkshire Dales, Married Pat the girl from the farm next door, and had two children Alan and Joe. The milk went to the milk Marketing board, the wool to the wool board, the lambs to market. Money arrive regularly by cheque, work was hard. He was not poor but definitely not rich, life was good. Alan went to agricultural college, Joe to university studying bacteriology. Life was good.

When qualified Alan returned to the farm, met a girl at the Young farmers, and married. Joe met Mary who was doing business studies at university and married the year everything changed.




Pat's dad died, and they took on the tenancy of his farm. Sorting out the loft they came across old hand written books on cheese making and recipes from generations of cheese makers.

Britain decided they had too much milk, disbanded the milk marketing board and paid farmers a pittance for their milk.

The Ward family decided to use their milk to make cheese. Joe and Mary moved into his Grandfathers house, converted the out buildings into a cheese room, packaging, and storage room.

Alan expanded the milking parlour and did the milking. Jack run the stock and farms.

When all other farmers went out of native breeds and into heavy yielding Holstein. Jack bought the Ayrshires, Short Horn and Guernsey. He sold the milk to Joe, Joe sold the whey back to Jack for his pigs. After much practice trials and failures Joe found and developed 6 recipes for cheese that had local appeal and customers..




Joe entered the Melton Mowbray cheese contest, and set off with Mary (heavily pregnant ) for the show. It snowed. They arrived just in time to enter the cheeses and tried to find a place to stay as the hotel they intended to stay at was cut off by snow drifts. A local artisan cheesemaker having no room in the house offered them the cheese plant to stay in. It was better than it sounded, the place was heated although no milk got through. There was an office with seating that was converted into beds. There was a small kitchen for tea making. Mary gave birth that night to Peter. Peter was placed in the cheese vat which was a steady 36 degrees just like an incubator.




Next day three judges from the show turned up to present the prizes. Out of the six cheeses entered three won first the others were second narrowly beaten by an established cheese consortium.

With the cheques came a bottle of Suntory Gold whiskey from the Japanese sponsor, French brandy from Rem Martin, and a bottle of Merlot from a wine sponsor . Shepherds and farmers popped in regularly to check all was OK, as the family was well known in farming circles.




Two years later Mary gave birth to Paul. The cheese sold well, and life was good. The Cheese consortium was not happy as at all future shows Ward cheeses beat them, and they wanted revenge.

They first tried to buy them out, But Joe refused. They then started a smear campaign to reduce sales. That didn't work as Yorkshire folk look after their own. Then they brought in the lawyers.




It was too much for Jack, who had a heart attack with the stress, six months after Pat died of breast cancer. The land owners decided to revoke the tenancy. Alan packed up farming and set up a trendy Tapas bar in Spain, selling fish and chips, and John Smiths bitter, to British holiday makers, on holiday, to get away from it all. Joe and Mary headed North where smallholdings were cheaper.

They found a deserted 50 acre dairy farm near the Cheviot hills. Within weeks they were back in production with a much reduced herd. Life was good.




When old enough Peter and Paul set up with their own smallholdings Peter with a herd of Goats and Paul with sheep. They all made cheese, based on the original recipes but modified for the milk of the animal they used. Life was good, sales boomed.

The big Cheese consortium soon found the dreaded competition was back. They could not bribe the land owner to kick them off, as Joe Ward owned the land. They could not smear or intimidate them as Northern folk know what's good and are loyal. They decided to go for the politicians.

With the help of a few brown envelopes they convinced the politicians that a shortage of cheese would occur, if stricter rules on small dairies were not brought in. Farm visits and snap inspections followed.




Paul had done a course in marketing, was head of publicity and showing the unwelcome visitors round the farms. After a few months the inspectors realised that they were being used, Their visits became friendly and more like fire side chats. They visit weekly for tea and coffee and to buy cheese . A café was built overlooking the cheese room and leased out to a couple that wanted to sell organic products locally. The farm shop was the next logical step.




Peter had attended the Schumacher college , and was evangelical about small is beautiful. He studied the modern method of supermarket, just in time, and exposed the flaws in newspapers and periodicals, being a natural cartoonist his criticisms were devastating. He established a web site for would be reporters and satirists, and produced the , How To, range of books. Ward publishing soon followed employing locally, and run by a reporter and editor from a local paper, bought out and closed by a national company.

life was good.




Joe was killed on the A1 In a traffic accident. He was hit by an HGV driving on the wrong side of the road at the Belford crossroad. It was good Friday the A&E department 50 miles away was full of drunks. He was alive when they arrived at the hospital , but the 3 hour wait in the ambulance did for him. He didn't stand a chance, in an overworked hospital with staff shortages. The national papers became aware of the accident and went on the offensive blaming Joe for the accident as he tried to stop much needed deliveries of cheese to the supermarket chain. The Wards hit back locally. The Sun newspaper sale plummeted, helped by the Liverpool football supporters action group.




Small producers selling locally to local shops was the only way forward for the Wards. They had enough customers, regular and returning. Shops outside their delivery range wanted their cheese and tried to persuade the Wards to expand. They did not, instead they produced a free web guide on how to set up a small dairy. Everything a smallholder needs to know from getting a Holding number to EU health and safety regulations, and risk assessments. They published the recipes of how to make their cheese. A web site was established for shops that wanted Ward style cheese, and who was up and running in the area. Shops and producers came together exchanged ideas and requests for help.

Life is good,

Ward cheeses are ever popular . At Christmas a good time for cheese sales , many customers head out to the local shops for Ward cheeses.

Today , up and down the country people are singing the praises of the Ward Cheeses