Longley Farm: Pioneering Yorkshire dairy that introduced cottage cheese to the UK marks 75 years in business

Some Jersey cows at Tyers Hall Farm, South Yorkshire, which is part of the Longley Farm operation. Picture supplied by Longley Farm.

Published 29th Oct 2023, 11:45 BST

Since launching in 1948, with just 30 acres and 10 cows on land in Holmfirth, the company now employs 120 staff and is a multinational organisation, with a small farm in Uruguay and a successful operation in Australia, which supplies the Far East. It also takes milk from around 30 other British dairy farms, much of it from Jersey cows, needed for its high protein content.

Items such as cottage cheese and certain flavours of yoghurt remain best-sellers in supermarkets and corner shops and its products are also sold at the Windsor Farm Shop, often frequented by the Royals.

The farm has pioneered many industry ‘firsts’ including the region’s first pasteurised milk.

Longley Farm, Holmfirth, 1954. Picture supplied by Longley Farm

They put up the first commercial wind power turbine generator in the country in 1986 in Holmfirth. The farm also became the first dairy in Europe to produce cottage cheese on a commercial scale in 1973.

Chief executive Jimmy Dickinson, whose father Joseph and uncle Edgar Julian co-founded the farm, remains at the helm.

He said: “Not many businesses today make 75 years and we are already planning for the next 25 and beyond. There has only been two generations of our family running Longley Farm. I was born into it, so my entire life has been involved with it.”

Mr Dickinson’s father’s parents started a milking business before the Second World War. They sold Tuberculosis Tested milk, known as TT Milk.

Joseph Dickinson on the left and Edgar Dickinson right loading bottles of cream onto a delivery van at Upper Longley Farm in 1960. Picture supplied by Longley Farm.

He said: “After the Second World War, my father Joseph came out as a Royal Navy engineering officer and my Uncle Edgar Julian carried on in engineering in Huddersfield.

“One thing which stuck with him was seeing cottage cheese for the first time. He was in the Pacific Campaign on a Navy ship and the British sailors had very little to eat, just minimal rations.

“They would see American ships and communicate with US troops and saw they had all sorts to eat and drink, like fresh orange juice and cottage cheese.”

When his great uncle, Jonas Hinchliffe, died he left the farm to Joseph and Edgar.

Joseph Dickinson, left, and Edgar Dickinson in front of the grass dryer at Longley Farm in 1954. Picture supplied by Longley Farm

By 1948 they were working differently to other farms. Mr Dickinson said: “They were trailblazers, if you like. They were combining engineering and farming to create pasteurised milk.”

In 1954, when rationing ended, Longley Farm was one of the first to return to making cream, with sales “sky-rocketing” after a 15-year hiatus

Longley farm became the first in the UK to make cottage cheese on a commercial scale, inspired by Joseph’s experience on the ships.

During a visit to the US in 1964, he saw how Americans were turning cottage cheese into a best-seller. Early attempts saw him use a tin bath.

Cottage cheese was first made in 1972 to Joseph’s recipe and it became the standard recipe in the UK for cottage cheese. By 1973 it was being sold on a commercial scale.

Mr Dickinson said: “There was a time in the early days when anyone making cottage cheese in this country had come via Longley farm.”

Recent accolades include success at the International Cheese and Dairy Awards, with a raft of awards including Gold Awards for its cottage cheese, yoghurt and cream.

Mr Dickinson said: “We are one off kind of a company I think. It's the honesty and the quality of our products which make it a success.”