Cheese from the Dales that doesn't crumble

The traditional Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes used the Great Yorkshire Show to launch a new “buttery” cheese named after a landmark familiar from when the Tour de France passed through the region.

Buttertubs is described as a creamy-textured cheese, with citrus, lemony notes.

“It’s more cheddar-like in texture,” said Sandra Bell, Wensleydale’s marketing manager.

“People love it. We have slowed down the cheesemaking process to create the buttery texture.”

The new recipe took a gold medal at this year’s British Cheese Awards.

Wensleydale sources milk from 40 local farmers and exports around 10 per cent of its cheese. Of that, half goes to the US and Canada, where the taste skews towards cheese with cranberries, Ms Bell said.

The company says it is developing new export markets in the middle and far east.

Buttertubs takes its name from the fluted limestone potholes five miles from the creamery, on the mountain pass known in Tour de France parlance as the Cote de Buttertubs. It was one of the “King of the Mountain” obstacles in the 2014 race in subsequent Tours de Yorkshire.

The name derives from the days when cheese and butter were stored in the potholes to keep them cool, as farmers rested on their way to market.