Kirkby Malzeard & Laverton

Kirkby Malzeard Dairy, including a 'Short History of Dairying in Kirkby Malzeard to 1985', by Bill Taylor

Short History of Dairying in Kirkby Malzeard to 1985
by Bill Taylor

The history of dairying in Yorkshire goes back as far as the first of the dry stone walls which adorn our landscape. The walled enclosure was essential to keep animals -in those days sheep and goats-close to home for the daily routine of milking.
It is an established fact that the Cistercian monks of Jervaulx were responsible for the introduction to the area of cheese, later to become known as Wensleydale. A condition of tenancy of lands occupied by the Order following the conquest was the supply of quantities of food to the Norman garrison at Richmond. Cheesemaking in those days was probably regarded only as a method of preserving milk produced from the summer grass as a winter food and would be essential if the requirements of provisioning the garrison were to be met all the year round.
The origins of Wensleydale cheese can be attributed to the Cistercian monks of the 11th and 12th centuries, but what about the centuries before? The native population had the same winter survival problem. Was summer cheesemaking in our dales as essential for human survival as hay making was for the survival of the stock during those unrecorded centuries before the well chronicled efforts of the incomers at Jervaulx?
The Intervening Centuries
With the dissolution of the monasteries their dairying activities came to an abrupt end, monks and lay people scattered across the countryside taking their skills with them. Even if it had not been the case for earlier centuries, cheesemaking did now become an established farming operation.
When the sheep and goats were replaced by the native Shorthorn cow is not at all clear but this was so, and the descendants of the native Shorthorn continued to supply the raw material until were largely replaced by the incoming Friesians in the 20th century.
Shorthorn milk was superior to that of other breeds for cheesemaking. Having much smaller fat globules it produced a fuller-bodied cheese. A herd of pedigree Shorthorns still exists locally today, owned by the Nicholson family at Castilles Farm, Dallowgill.
For some reason not readily apparent, farmers in the Kirkby Malzeard district and Nidderdale areas appear to have specialised in the production of butter on the farm. The cheesemaking was largely in Wensleydale, Swaledale and areas to the north. Prior to the Napoleonic wars there was a thriving market at Kirkby Malzeard and one assumes that butter produced each week on the farm would be sold there or taken further afield, together with other produce, to Ripon. In early 20th century photographs of public transport, butter baskets are in evidence on market days.
Change
Without doubt the one single factor which brought about the greatest change in dairying in the dales was the coming of the railways in the third quarter of the 19th century.
With the rapidly expanding industrial conurbations of the West Riding, Tees and Wearside came an insatiable thirst for fresh milk and the tending of milk in cheese vats or churning of butter was replaced by the race from the farms to catch the milk trains which were a feature of all railway stations for more than 70 years.
Milk from the Kirkby area was shipped daily from Ripon Station to Craven Dairies in Leeds. These small town dairy companies were the basis of the present Associated Fresh Foods Co (ASDA). Milk was also dispatched to Spen Valley Dairy Company at Dewsbury and to the Cooperative Societies in the West Yorkshire towns.
With the improvements in motor transport early in this century this method of transport was introduced for taking milk either to the station or in some cases direct to the town buyers. The late Mr T Thirkill was the first in the area to haul milk by motor transport, using a Napier wagon from about 1920 until 1927.

Later, much of the haulage to the Leeds buyers was operated by L. Atkinson & Son and this was a complimentary operation to their coal business. After delivering loads of milk into Leeds, empty churns from several vehicles would be loaded on one vehicle for the journey home, the empty vehicles being reloaded with coal from the West Riding collieries.
In 1933 the newly formed Milk Marketing Board assumed responsibility for the marketing of all milk produced, and the responsibility for transport. Mr Stan Pickles still had in his possession a leaflet explaining the scheme and his first statement of account dated September 1933.
Manufacture of cheese and butter declined considerably on farms in the 1930’s and died out completely on a commercial basis during the second world war.
Kirkby Malzeard Dairy
A small dairy was established by a group of farmers in Kirkby Malzeard prior to 1920. The objectives were to produce butter, cheese and milk for sale. This was at the western end of the village, the site now occupied by the residence of Mr J. H. Kitching and the adjoining builders yard. In 1921, Mrs C. Mason was appointed manageress of the business. The daughter of a Studley farmer named Brown, Mrs Mason had formally been employed by Skell Dale Dairies which was situated at Fountains and had a retail dairy shop in Ripon. At the same time, Mr. Harry Barton, also from Skell Dale, joined the dairy as butter maker. A little later in 1922 a young school leaver called Gill joined the staff. Don Gill was to serve as lad, cheesemaker and production manager for 50 years until his retirement in 1972. It appears that only a comparatively short time after her appointment as manageress, Mrs Mason became the owner of the business and later took over the business of her former employers, Skell Dale. The Fountains premises were closed and the business transferred to Kirkby Malzeard.
Another small dairy had been established at Galphay, known as Manor Dairy, housed in the buildings facing the Green, and now holiday accommodation owned by Mr Hopkins. This was acquired in 1927 and the bill of sale still exists for a number of milk cans, 1 Model T Ford vehicle, and goodwill; the bill total was £128. Along with the vehicle came the driver, the late Mr Ted Tibbets. During the 1930’s the dairy became a limited company with Mr Vayro as managing director. Butter making ceased and the business concentrated on cheese, liquid bottled milk and the supply of bulk liquid milk to other buyers. A retail bottled milk business was operated in Ripon until the 1950’s. By this time the managing director was Seth Gray.
In 1953 the business was acquired by the Wensleydale Holdings group of companies controlled by Mr T.C. (Kit) Calvert. In addition to the Kirkby business, this included the Wensleydale Creamery, Hawes, Wensleydale Dairy Products Ltd, a sales company, Masham Farmers Dairy and Fernbeck Dairy, Darley. By the 1960’s, the business had outgrown the premises at the western end of the village and the present factory was built in the grounds of Mowbray House. This was opened in April 1965. With the opening of the new premises, the Fernbeck Dairy at Darley was closed and the milk transferred to Kirkby Malzeard. In 1969 the Masham Farmers Dairy was closed and cheesemaker, Miss Evie Oyston, who had made Wensleydale cheese for the maiden voyages of both Cunard Queens in the 30’s, came to the new Kirkby factory.

Since 1966 the remaining creameries of the Wensleydale group have been in the ownership of the Milk Marketing Board and the policy over this period has been to concentrate the manufacture of traditional round cheese at Kirkby Malzeard. Considerable expansion was carried out in 1984 and a new air conditioned cheese store for traditional cheese was constructed. Early this year (1985) Kirkby Malzeard became a manufacturing unit of Dairy Crest Foods.
Currently some 50 people are employed shipping 80,000 litres of milk to Messrs Rowntree at York and manufacturing 6 tonnes of traditional cheese per day. Wensleydale Dairy Products distribute the cheese in the north of England. Dairy Crest Foods distribute Kirkby Malzeard traditional cheese nationally and also internationally to some 30-40 countries throughout the world.

Kirkby Malzeard Dairy, early 1980’s.

In 1987, it was reported that the Dairy was to close, and 54 jobs were to be lost. The Milk Marketing Board were going through a period of ‘rationalisation’, and the Kirkby Dairy was not in their future plans. An emergency board meeting was held, chaired by Bill Taylor, to see if cheese making could, somehow, be continued. It was agreed that they would pool their redundancy money, buy the premises, and continue trading. Within a year there were 28 local people employed.

With the Dairy now back up and running, a masterstroke was the introduction of Coverdale cheese, a cheese that was no longer being made by any other dairy at that time. As it’s popularity grew, so did production, to 3 tonnes a week. In 1989 it was awarded second place in the ‘new cheese’ category at the International Food Exhibition in London raising it’s profile even further.

In 1999 the Dairy was bought by Murray Vernon, a multi-national group, who wanted to double manufacture at the site. As an extra 1,000 tonnes of milk a month would be needed to meet production. Unfortunately local farmers couldn’t meet the demand from the Dairy, so organic milk had to be imported from Denmark.
In 2000 the Dairy was bought by the Hawes Creamery, which again secured the 175 workers employed across both sites. Moving right up to date, the Canadian food group called Saputo bought both sites for £23m in 2021 securing the future of the 210 employees.

Paperwork Relating to Stan Pickles, Farmer at Azerley Grange, Laverton, and K.M. Dairy