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In Living Memory

Factual: History

In Living Memory: Series 17

In Living Memory: Series 17: Episode 1

Episode 1

Series 17

BBC Radio 4 - In Living Memory, Series 17, Episode 1

The rise and fall of Lymeswold cheese - the first new British cheese in 200 years.

The rise and fall of Lymeswold - the first new British cheese in 200 years and the only one launched by a cabinet minister, in 1982. In a decade it went from hero to zero - why?

In 1982, agriculture minister Peter Walker launched Lymeswold cheese - the first new British cheese for 200 years, and, for a while, the must-have dairy product for gourmets. Partly intended to deal with milk over-production, it was also meant to show the French we could beat them at their own game. 

The public went mad for Lymeswold but, within 10 years, sales had dwindled, and the makers, Dairy Crest, pulled the plug. It had been a case of wild over-optimism: flushed with the original success, Dairy Crest had expanded production far beyond what the market could take, and moved from a craft-based process to a mass-produced machine-made product. It became a byword for inauthentic marketing hype, and a butt of Private Eye jokes. 

Jolyon Jenkins speaks to dairy veterans about what went wrong, and finds a small cheesemaker in the Highlands who is making Lymeswold still.

Producer/presenter: Jolyon Jenkins.

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