Six farms on the Mendip Hills, Somerset · since 1987

Cheese from six farms, aged in one cold stone cave.

We are a dairy co-operative. Our members milk the herds, we make the cheese in Priddy, and every wheel matures in a former quarry tunnel that holds eleven degrees all year. It is sold by the kilo from our shop, or delivered on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Shop this month's cheeses Book a cave tour
Order by Sunday for Tuesday delivery Free local van over £30 Shop open seven days
  • 6
    member farms, 800 cows and 120 goats between them
  • 2,600
    wheels resting in the cave at any one time
  • 340 m
    of limestone tunnel, leased from the quarry since 1987
  • 2 days
    a week our van goes out: Tuesday and Friday
In the shop this month

Six cheeses, cut and weighed to order.

How ordering works
  • Raw cow's milk · 18 months

    Coldharbour Reserve

    Our clothbound wheel. Dense, crystalline, with a long savoury finish and a faint sweetness from the summer pasture milk it was made with. Turned by hand every fortnight for eighteen months.

    £38per kg
  • Cow's milk · 6 months

    Mendip Tomme

    A supple, nutty mountain-style wheel with a grey mottled rind from the cave's own moulds. The one our members take home. Melts well and keeps for weeks in paper.

    £24per kg
  • Goat's milk · 3 weeks

    Wellow Ash

    A small ash-rolled log from Sara Vine's Anglo-Nubian herd at Wellow Bottom. Bright and lemony when young, softening under the rind by week three. Sold whole, 180 g each.

    £32per kg
  • Cow's milk · 4 months

    Priddy Blue

    Pierced at six weeks and left to blue in the wettest end of the tunnel. Creamy, salty, with a mineral edge that the cave seems to put into everything. Best in autumn and winter.

    £29per kg
  • Cow's milk · 8 weeks

    Hollow Wall

    A crumbly, lactic, Caerphilly-style wheel made to a recipe from the Pardoe family at Longacre. Fresh and clean, with a thin natural rind. The cheese to eat with bread and a pear.

    £21per kg
  • Cow's milk · 10 months

    Ember

    Mendip Tomme, aged four months longer and then cold-smoked for two days over oak offcuts from the co-operative's own hedges. Bacon-sweet, not acrid. Made in small batches from October.

    £30per kg
Minimum cut 250 g; we cut in 250 g steps and charge by the weight on the scale. Whole wheels of Reserve (about 9 kg) and Tomme (about 4 kg) at 10% off the kilo price. Every piece is wrapped in waxed paper, never plastic.
Member farms

The milk arrives before seven, every morning.

Each farm owns an equal share of the co-operative and is paid on the price the cheese sells for, not the milk price.

  • 140Holstein-Friesian cows

    Longacre Farm, Priddy

    The Pardoe family. A founding member in 1987 and the farm next door to the dairy. Their milk goes into Hollow Wall and most of the Tomme.

  • 90Jersey cows

    Ridgeway Farm, Westbury-sub-Mendip

    Ann and Tom Heal. High-fat Jersey milk that gives the Reserve its colour and its crystals. Grazed on the scarp, in view of the Levels.

  • 120Anglo-Nubian goats

    Wellow Bottom, Wells

    Sara Vine, who joined in 2009. The only goat herd in the co-operative and the source of every Wellow Ash log. The goats kid in February and dry off in November.

  • 210Montbéliarde cross cows

    Cheddar Head Farm, Charterhouse

    The Willis brothers. Our largest herd, on the old lead-mining ground above Cheddar Gorge. Hardy cows, protein-rich milk, the backbone of the Reserve.

  • 60Ayrshire cows

    Ebbor Farm, Wookey Hole

    Ruth Ebbor-Cox. Our smallest herd and our newest member, since 2021. Ayrshire milk with small fat globules that suit the Priddy Blue.

  • 180British Friesian cows

    Stoke Hill, Rodney Stoke

    The Marsh family, founding members. Cows out on pasture from April to late October, then on hay from their own meadows. Never silage, by co-operative rule.

About 38,000 litres of milk a week across all six farms, roughly 3,800 kg of cheese. Members' meeting on the first Thursday of the month, in the dairy kitchen.
The cave

A quarry tunnel that has not changed temperature since the 1850s.

Coldharbour was cut for Bath stone and abandoned in 1961. The four founding farms leased it in 1987 because it did the one thing a refrigerator cannot: it holds eleven degrees and ninety-two percent humidity through August heat and January frost, without a single fan. Every wheel we make spends its whole life on spruce boards down there, brushed, turned and tasted by two affineurs who walk the full length of the tunnel each morning.

  • MondayEvery wheel under six months turned and brushed. Boards wiped with brine.
  • WednesdayReserve wheels over a year checked with an iron; any that are ready are marked for the shop.
  • FridayPriddy Blue pierced or moved deeper into the wet end. New make brought down from the dairy.
  • SaturdayTours at 11:00 and 14:00. The tunnel is closed to visitors the rest of the week.
11°C
92%relative humidity, measured at the midpoint
340 mof tunnel, in four connected galleries
2,600wheels resting on spruce boards today

The cave is 40 metres below the road. Bring a jumper for the tour; it feels colder than eleven degrees when you have come in from the sun.

Ordering and delivery

Order by Sunday night, eat it on Tuesday.

Back to the cheeses
  1. 1

    Choose your pieces

    Add cheeses in 250 g steps, or a whole wheel. You are charged on the weight we actually cut, so the final total can move by a few pence. Orders close at midnight on Sunday and Wednesday.

  2. 2

    We cut on the morning of dispatch

    Nothing is pre-cut. Each piece comes off the wheel in the cave on Monday or Thursday, is wrapped in waxed paper, labelled with the wheel number and the date, and packed with an ice pack in a wool liner.

  3. 3

    Van on Tuesday and Friday

    Our own van covers everything within 20 miles of Priddy: Wells, Cheddar, Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet and the villages between. Beyond that, a tracked overnight courier for the rest of England and Wales.

Local van, within 20 miles£3.50, free over £30
Courier, England and Wales£6.50, free over £60
Collect from the shopFree, any day

We do not ship to Scotland, Northern Ireland or overseas in summer, because the ice packs do not hold. From November to March we will, at the courier rate plus £4. Cheese that arrives warm or damaged is replaced on the next run without argument; ring the shop.

Seasonal notes

The cheese follows the grass, and the grass follows the year.

  • SpringMarch to May

    Now in season

    The goats kid in February and Wellow Ash returns to the shop in the second week of March, after a winter without it. Cows go out on the new grass from mid-April and the milk changes almost overnight: thinner, greener, higher in yield. The Hollow Wall made from it is the freshest tasting of the year.

    Best nowWellow Ash, Hollow Wall, the last of the winter Reserve

  • SummerJune to August

    Now in season

    Full pasture milk, deep yellow from the buttercups and clover. This is the milk that becomes next year's Reserve, so the make room runs at capacity and the tunnel fills. We stop courier deliveries beyond the van radius when the forecast passes 26 degrees. Ember is not made in summer.

    Best nowMendip Tomme, Wellow Ash, Priddy Blue picnics

  • AutumnSeptember to November

    Now in season

    The Reserve release. Wheels made the summer before last are ironed in September and the best come up to the shop from the first Saturday in October. Smoking starts when the nights turn cold. The goats dry off in November and the Ash disappears until March; buy it while it lasts.

    Best nowColdharbour Reserve, Ember, Priddy Blue

  • WinterDecember to February

    Now in season

    Hay milk: cows are in, feeding on meadow hay, and the milk is richer and slower to set. Whole Reserve wheels and half Tommes for Christmas must be ordered by the first Sunday in December; the van runs an extra day in the week before Christmas. The shop shuts for four days over the holiday.

    Best nowWhole wheels, Ember, the Blue at its peak
Visiting

The shop is the old milking parlour, next to the make room.

You can watch the morning make through the window until about eleven, taste everything on the counter, and take a cave tour on Saturdays. There is a small café doing toasties, soup and our own whey-fed pork sausage rolls. Dogs on leads are welcome in the yard, not in the shop or the cave.

Coldharbour Dairy Co-operative, Coldharbour Lane, Priddy, near Wells, Somerset. Follow the brown signs from the Priddy green; the lane is single track and the car park is on the left before the dairy.

Book a Saturday cave tour, £12 Order for delivery instead

Shop and café

  • Monday to Friday9:00 to 17:30
  • Saturday9:00 to 18:00
  • Sunday10:00 to 16:00
  • Christmas Day to 28 DecemberClosed

Cave tours, Saturdays only

  • Morning tour11:00, about 70 minutes
  • Afternoon tour14:00, about 70 minutes
  • Price, tasting included£12 adults, £5 under 16
  • Group size12 people at most

Watching the make

  • Milk in6:45
  • Curd cut, from the window8:30 to 11:00
  • No make onSundays