Cotherstone: A Living Tradition from County Durham
Cotherstone is a so-called Dales-style cheese made in Teesdale, County Durham, just across the river from the village that gives it its name. Similar in style to Wensleydale and Swaledale cheese, it is a semi-hard cheese with a light, crumbly texture and a fresh, lactic flavour.
Cotherstone Cheese, 2026.
Cheese has been made in this part of England for centuries. The name “Cotherstone Cheese” first appeared in print in 1883 in the Teesdale Mercury, which praised its quality and growing national reputation. By the late nineteenth century, Cotherstone was regularly transported by rail to markets in London and beyond.
Cotherstone village as mentioned in "A Month in Yorkshire" by Walter White, 1861, already had a reputation locally for it's cheese.
The modern story of the Cotherstone we sell begins in 1947. A winter storm left the Cross family farm snowed in, with milk that could not be collected. Cheesemaking provided a way to preserve it, and a new family tradition began. Joan Cross continued making Cotherstone for over forty years using her family recipe, and the cheese became a cherished part of the Neal’s Yard Dairy range.
Neal's Yard Dairy Cheese Map 1993.
When Joan retired in 2023, the future of the cheese briefly seemed uncertain. But after a brief hiatus, in 2024 her son Gordon revived production, becoming the third generation of the family to make Cotherstone.
As Gordon explains:
“My grandmother married into a farming family in the 1920s, when twenty or thirty farms in Teesdale were making a similar cheese that came to be known as Cotherstone. Now we’re the only ones left.
Territorial cheeses like ours embody the heritage of British cheese, shaped by generations of dairy farming. Cotherstone is a natural, healthy cheese that reflects both the hard work of the past and the promise of the future. It’s a perfect match for fruitcake. In our family, we always enjoyed the two together by the fire with a pot of tea.”
Cotherstone enjoyed on a cheese board, 2024.
Today Cotherstone is made with pasteurised milk from a nearby farm. Like many handmade cheeses, its character varies subtly from batch to batch, reflecting the changing milk and variations in the make.
One of the distinctive features of many British territorials is that they can be enjoyed at several stages of maturity. Cotherstone is delicious when young, with a delicate freshness, but it also develops deeper savoury notes when matured for longer.
For many years, Joan Cross sold her cheeses locally when they were still very fresh, often coating them in wax to prevent mould growth on the rind. At Neal’s Yard Dairy, we began maturing cheeses from those same batches with a natural rind to bring out more complex flavours. It was only later that we realised how different our matured cheeses were from those Joan sold in Teesdale, and we sent her a piece of our handiwork for inspection. She was very polite, praising its interesting flavour and aroma while gently noting that she preferred her Cotherstone fresh from the press!
Cotherstone on the slate of the original Neal's Yard Dairy in the 1980s.
This contrast is not unusual among farmhouse cheesemakers. Many of the customers of Neal’s Yard Dairy love the deep flavours of mature Cheshire cheese, yet patriarch Lance Appleby reportedly disliked those flavours because they reminded him of times when the family had unsold cheese ageing longer than intended. The beauty of these traditional cheeses lies precisely in this versatility: they can be enjoyed in many forms, each revealing a different side of the same recipe.
Dry-salting newly arrived Cotherstone at our Maturation Arches in Bermondsey.
When Cotherstone arrives at Neal’s Yard Dairy on our northeastern van collection run, we place the cheeses on wooden boards in one of our cooler maturation rooms with high humidity. After resting for a day to equilibrate, we dry-salt the surface of each cheese by eye. The salt dissolves into a light brine drawn from the moisture of the cheese itself, helping to establish the beginnings of a natural rind.
The cheeses are then turned daily during their first week of ageing as the natural mould rind begins to develop. Boards are changed as needed, and the cheeses typically mature for around eight weeks before being wrapped and moved to colder storage ready for sale. In the past we experimented with brining the cheeses in a brine bath instead, which encouraged more ruddy rind communities, but ultimately we preferred the flavour and character of the dry-salted cheeses we produce today.
Our ideal Cotherstone rind is populated by a range of natural grey moulds, giving it a beautifully variegated appearance and a gently earthy cellar aroma. Inside, the paste is buttery and supple, warm yellow in colour with occasional small openings: a delicious example of a classic British style.
Find Cotherstone here on our website.
By Caitlin Hatch lelineartstudio.com - Neal's Yard Dairy Archive