When many people think of Colwick, the hall, racecourse and country park might spring to mind, but did you know it was once famous across the country for producing it’s own cheese – you had cheddar believe it!
Colwick Cheese was a fresh cheese that was invented around the 17th Century in the village.
It was a soft, curdy cheese – and because of the way it is made; had a unique shape, forming a bowl. The centre of the curd fell to the bottom of the mould while the sides still held to the cheese cloth.
Colwick cheese is normally made using moulds similar to cake tins. Many households which traditionally made their own cheese would tip the curds into a cloth, rather than a mould, which they would hang on a line, letting out the whey until the cheese is dry.
Colwick could be eaten either fresh or ripened. To ripen: the cheese was covered to exclude the air. In former times the traditional way to cover it was with cabbage leaf placed over the top.
It is said to have been invented by a John Clarkson who lived in the village and died in 1645 and was one of the family buried in the nave of St John’s church.
The Colwick Cheese was celebrated in an 1857 poem by John Dilks ‘The Artist’s Bride’ which also features the River Trent (page 23);
“Many others, there assembled,
Cosy, sitting at their ease;
Or despatching with great gusto,
Pleasant ‘Colwick,’ thy rich cheese.”
Commercial production of Colwick cheese ended in 1993 when the Richmond Dairy in Mapperley decided that it would cost too much to comply with new European legislation.
At its peak the dairy was making over eight tonnes of the soft, curdy cheese a day.
The cheese was revived in 2011 using traditional methods and milk from the rare Red Poll Cattle.
Production ceased in 2018 when the owners of the dairy producing the cheese took the decision to retire.
