Brightwell Ash

From 2016 to 2024, Fraser Norton and Rachel Yarrow have been making their exceptional French-inspired goat's cheeses at Earth Trust Farm in Oxfordshire. In early 2025, they took a leap of faith and purchased Pencrug, a 120-acre farm in Carmarthenshire. During their time at Earth Trust, Rachel completed a Master’s degree on indoor and outdoor systems in the UK dairy goat sector and was awarded a Nuffield Fellowship to explore the potential for pasture-based goat dairying in the UK—a system that remains very rare. These experiences led Rachel and Fraser to the realisation that it was time to put their research into practice.

Now settled at Pencrug with their herd, they are focusing on developing hardy, thrifty cross-bred goats, and have begun replanting historical hedgerows to enrich the grazing on land more than ten times the size of what they had access to at Earth Trust.

The fact that Norton and Yarrow make Brightwell Ash exclusively with milk from their own herd may mean that availability of this special cheese is limited at times—but we believe the benefits of connecting a farming system directly to the cheese it produces, and supporting a pioneering approach to sustainable, extensive goat dairying, are well worth it.

Brightwell Ash has a wrinkly ash-coated rind which may develop mould as it ages, offering a depth of character and subtle seasonal variations.

Brightwell Ash arrives with us when just a week or two old. Upon arrival, we dry the cheese, then mature it in our facilities in Bermondsey, London. Our maturation team are responsible for judging which environment will best suit the individual batch.