British cheese: facts, protected names and how much we make

Key figures

• 760named cheeses made in the UK by 154 cheesemakers, by our own count in November 2026. See every one on our map.
• 17UK cheeses with a protected name on the government register, 12 of them from England.
• 528ktonnes of cheese made by UK dairies in 2025. 71% of it was Cheddar.
• 70+blue cheeses made in the UK, according to the British Cheese Board in 2019.

How many British cheeses are there?

There is no official count. Defra measures cheese by type, not by name, and a single dairy may make several named cheeses. So we made our own list: every cheesemaker we could verify, and every named cheese each one makes today, each checked against a current source. We found 760 named cheeses from 154 makers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You can explore them all on our map of British cheesemakers, which also explains what we counted and how.

Our count is a minimum: a cheese is only on it if we could trace it to a maker and a current source. The British Cheese Board, the industry's former promotional body for cheese, said in 2019 that more than 70 blue cheeses were being made in the UK.

Cheese made in the UK by type

Cheese made by UK dairies, 2025, thousand tonnes.

• Cheddar375k t
• Other cheese (including mozzarella and soft cheese)103k t
• Other hard territorials (such as Red Leicester, Double Gloucester)31k t
• Crumbly territorials (such as Wensleydale, Lancashire)10k t
• Blue cheese (such as Stilton)9k t

Source: Defra, milk utilisation by dairies, annual data for 2025, published 5 November 2026. Defra groups cheese by type, not by named cheese; the examples are typical cheeses in each group.

UK dairies made 528k tonnes of cheese in 2025. Cheddar alone was 375k tonnes, 71% of the total. The traditional county cheeses are a small share by weight: the firm ones such as Red Leicester and Double Gloucester came to 31k tonnes, the crumbly ones such as Wensleydale and Lancashire 10k tonnes, and blue cheese 9k tonnes. Production since 1987, imports and exports are on our UK dairy and cheese in numbers page.

Cheeses with protected names

17 UK cheeses have a protected name on the UK register: 10 as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and 7 as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). For a PDO, every stage of making must happen in the named area. For a PGI, at least one stage must. Cheese sold under a protected name has to follow the published specification and is inspected.

Source: UK government, protected food and drink names register, checked 9 November 2026. Each name links to its register entry and specification. Protected since is the year the name was first registered in the EU scheme; all were carried over to the UK scheme at the end of 2020.

12 of the 17 are English. The oldest were registered in 1996. The newest English one is Yorkshire Wensleydale, in 2013. A separate protection for Swaledale Cheese made from cows' milk has been cancelled, leaving only the ewes' milk version. The Board said in 2019 that Bonchester and Teviotdale were not being made at the time, although both names are still registered.

England's county cheeses

Most English counties once had a cheese of their own, made on farms to use up summer milk. The notes below give a few facts about the best-known ones, with the source for each.

Cheddar

The specification for West Country Farmhouse Cheddar says there is evidence of Cheddar being made around the village of Cheddar in Somerset as far back as the 15th century, and that by tradition the cheese was kept in the caves under the Mendip Hills. To carry the protected name it must be made on farms in Dorset, Somerset, Devon or Cornwall, stacked and turned by hand during making, and kept for at least nine months. Cheddar made anywhere else is still Cheddar; the name itself is not protected.

Source: West Country Farmhouse Cheddar PDO specification.

Stilton

Stilton is named after the village where it was first sold to the public, at the Bell Inn on the coaching road between London and York. In 1727 Daniel Defoe wrote that he had passed through Stilton, a town famous for cheese. Yet Stilton may only be made in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, never in Stilton itself.

Source: Stilton PDO specification.

Wensleydale

Cheese was first made in Wensleydale by French Cistercian monks who settled there in the 11th and 12th centuries. After the monasteries were dissolved the skill passed to local farmers. Edward Chapman opened the first creamery in Hawes in 1897, and Kit Calvert saved it from closure in the 1930s. Wensleydale can be made anywhere, but only cheese made in the dale to the specification can be sold as Yorkshire Wensleydale.

Source: Yorkshire Wensleydale PGI specification.

Lancashire

Preston was granted its charter for fairs and markets in 1179, and much of the cheese sold there came from farms in north Lancashire. Traditional Lancashire was first made on farms on the Fylde, north of the River Ribble. It is made by mixing curd from different days, which gives it its texture. The Board listed ten Lancashire makers in 2019, all within ten miles of the Trough of Bowland.

Sources: Beacon Fell Traditional Lancashire PDO specification; British Cheese Board, The Lancashire Dairies (archived 2019).

Double and Single Gloucester

Gloucester had a permanent cheese market in Eastgate Street by 1498, and the county's cheese output was put at more than 1,000 tonnes in 1789. Double Gloucester is now made in many parts of the UK. Single Gloucester is protected and can only be made in Gloucestershire, using milk from Gloucester cattle where possible.

Sources: British Cheese Board, Double Gloucester (archived 2019); Single Gloucester PDO specification.

Red Leicester

Leicestershire farms were probably colouring their cheese red by the 17th century, and annatto was in regular use by the 18th. A permanent cheese market was built in Leicester in 1759, which is likely how the county cheese came to be called Leicester. Its large flat wheels also earned it the name Leicestershire Flat.

Source: British Cheese Board, History of Red Leicester (archived 2019).

Cornish Yarg

Yarg is said to be the name Gray spelt backwards, after the Cornish farmer whose recipe it was. It is wrapped in nettle leaves after pressing.

Source: British Cheese Board, Cornish Yarg (archived 2018).

Blue Cheshire

Blue Cheshire often began as an accident: whole Cheshire cheeses stored in barns would crack as they dried, letting blue mould in. Cheshire dairies now make it on purpose.

Source: British Cheese Board, Blue Cheshire (archived 2019).