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Royal Warrant Holders - Cheese Gifts

The Royal Warrant Holders have earned a considerable reputation for quality, service and value for money.

Order Cheese online for Christmas.Offering a selection of British and French cheeses with worldwide delivery, a perfect Christmas Gift.
www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

Jeroboams for superb Christmas Cheeses.Our cheese club members enjoy four individually matured, artisan cheeses every month. Join our club or buy membership as a gift for a specific month.
www.jeroboams.co.uk

Valvona & Crolla was established in 1934 and is run by the 4th generation of the original founder, Alfonso Crolla. We continue to operate our original retail shop in Elm Row in Edinburgh which is also our head office.
www.valvonacrolla.co.uk

Charles Martell commenced cheesemaking at Hunts Court in 1972 with the purchase of a small group of critically endangered Old Gloucester cows - the breed which made Double Gloucester cheese famous. The breed's modest progress since then has been reflected in the growth of Charles Martell & Son which is still a very small business employing 5 full time staff including family members.
The philosophy of the company has always been to remain close to the land and work with whatever makes the Gloucestershire landscape special be it the local breeds of cattle, pig, duck, goose and chicken or the many varieties of apple, plum and pear one of which is name the Stinking Bishop and has given rise to one of our cheeses of the same name. Its rind is whashed in perry which gives it its distinctive small and flavour. It in turn is named after a local 19th Century farmer who earned his nickname because of his riotous behaviour. He once promised not to return home from market until he had sold his cow and drunk the proceeds. He did both, and then when the kettle was too slow to boil he shot it!
Varieties of cheese produced: Native hard varieties: Double Gloucester, Single Gloucester (PDO), and Double Berkeley. New hard variety invented at Hunts Court: Hereford Hop.
New soft varieties invented at Hunts Court: Stinking Bishop and May Hill Green.

Demand for the cheese,Stinking Bishop, increased suddenly in 2005 with the release of Aardman Productions' animated movie "Wallace and Gromit and the Were-Rabbit", in which Gromit uses the smell of Stinking Bishop cheese to revive Wallace at a village event, by holding it under his nose.

Charles Martell began making Stinking Bishop cheese from the milk of his herd of Gloucestershire cattle, to increase awareness of the breed, which had previously been near to extinction. The remarkable smell of the cheese is in the rind, which is washed in perry (the name for cider made from pears) made from the Stinking Bishop variety of pear.

The pear was named after an infamous Ledbury farmer, Frederick Bishop, nicknamed Stinking Bishop, who was born in the mid-19th century and known for his drunken temper. One story is that he blasted a kettle that was on his stove at home, as it annoyed him. He is reputedly buried in the churchyard of the Parish Church of Colwall, a village between Ledbury and Malvern.

Stinking Bishop cheese, despite its alarming name and smell, is mild-flavoured and quite delicious. The smell arises from bacterial action on the perry, soaked into the rind.
Charles Martell & Son Ltd (No web address)