French Cistercian monks brought a cheese recipe to Wensleydale in the 12th century. Nearly 900 years later, it’s still made in the same dale, and the abbey that started it is a ruin nobody can miss on the way there.
Wensleydale creamery cheese takes its name from the dale itself, and the dale takes its cheesemaking history from a group of French Cistercian monks who settled at Jervaulx Abbey in the 12th century and brought a continental cheese recipe with them. That origin story is genuinely unusual. Most of Britain’s named cheeses trace back to farmhouse tradition rather than monastic imports, and Wensleydale’s recipe survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a World War II production crisis, and a 1992 closure that nearly ended the whole thing, to become one of the most recognisable cheeses in the country.
The abbey where it started is still standing, in ruined form, a short drive from Hawes, where the modern creamery now makes cheese using recognisably the same tradition the monks began. Few food stories in Yorkshire connect a working visitor attraction directly back to a 12th-century religious house this cleanly.
Location: Hawes, Wensleydale, Yorkshire Dales National Park, North Yorkshire
Best for: food history, a working creamery with cheesemaking on view, a genuine link to a nearby ruined abbey
Getting there: nearest railway station is Garsdale on the Settle-Carlisle line, then bus or taxi; Dales and Bowland Rambler bus service connects Hawes to the wider region
Open: Cheese Shop and Gift Shop 9am to 5pm daily; Cheese Experience 10am to 4pm daily; check current hours before travelling
Admission: shop and coffee shop free to enter; the Cheese Experience exhibit requires a paid ticket, book ahead online
The Story of Wensleydale Creamery
The story begins around 1150, when French Cistercian monks, having first settled at Fors, moved to Jervaulx Abbey in Lower Wensleydale, founded in 1156 and grown from that earlier 1145 monastery nearby. They brought with them a recipe for cheese from their homeland in France, made initially from sheep’s milk, the monks’ main dairy source in the dale’s early monastic years. During the 14th century, still well within the monastic period rather than after it, the monks began using cow’s milk alongside the original sheep’s milk, developing the blended recipe that became the base of what Wensleydale cheese would eventually be known for.
That monastic production continued for roughly four centuries until Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries reached Jervaulx Abbey in 1537. Rather than let the cheesemaking tradition disappear with the monks, the recipe passed to local farmers’ wives across the dale, and cheesemaking became a household task carried out on individual farms rather than in a single monastic dairy. That domestic, farmhouse-scale production continued for centuries, through to the Second World War, when wartime rationing and the government’s Milk Marketing Board restrictions on cheese variety very nearly wiped out the local tradition entirely, alongside most of Britain’s regional farmhouse cheeses.
The modern commercial creamery traces back to 1897, when Edward Chapman, a corn and provisions merchant in Hawes, began buying milk from surrounding farms to make Wensleydale cheese on a larger scale than any individual farmhouse could manage. That business grew into the creamery that still operates in Hawes today, though its survival wasn’t guaranteed even in recent history. In May 1992, Dairy Crest, then owners of the Hawes creamery, closed the site and moved Wensleydale cheese production to Lancashire, ending cheesemaking in the dale that gave the cheese its name. A management buyout later that year reversed the closure and brought production back to Hawes, and the creamery’s visitor centre, the Wensleydale Cheese Experience, opened in 1994, two years after the closure that very nearly ended the story for good.
What You See When You Visit
The Wensleydale Creamery visitor centre in Hawes combines a working cheese production facility with a shop, coffee shop, restaurant and paid exhibition space. Large viewing windows let visitors watch cheesemaking in progress on the factory floor below, a genuinely rare thing to see up close at this scale, and the Cheese Experience exhibit walks through the history from Jervaulx Abbey’s monks through to the modern creamery, including the 1992 closure and buyout that nearly ended production in the dale altogether.
The creamery has become closely associated with Wallace and Gromit in recent decades, the stop-motion characters created by Aardman Animations whose fondness for Wensleydale cheese in the films brought the cheese, and the creamery itself, a level of public recognition well beyond what a regional Yorkshire dairy might otherwise expect. That connection now draws a significant share of the centre’s more than 200,000 annual visitors, many of whom arrive knowing the cheese from the films before they know anything about the 12th-century monks who first made it.
Hawes itself, the market town the creamery sits in, is worth walking beyond the creamery’s car park. It sits directly on the Pennine Way, in the upper reaches of Wensleydale, surrounded by the classic Yorkshire Dales landscape of drystone walls and open fell, a working market town rather than a place that exists purely for the creamery’s visitors. Hawes still holds a livestock market and a rope-making workshop alongside the creamery, a reminder that cheese is one working trade among several that have kept this particular dale economically active long after many similar Dales towns lost theirs.
Why It Matters
Most British food origin stories are vague, farmhouse tradition passed down without clear documentation, or a commercial brand story invented well after the fact for marketing purposes. Wensleydale’s history is unusually well anchored: a specific monastic order, a specific abbey whose ruins still stand, and a documented continuous thread running from a 12th-century French recipe through to a cheese most people in Britain could identify by name today. Few regional foods can point to that kind of unbroken, verifiable lineage.
The 1992 closure and buyout add a layer most visitors don’t know about. Wensleydale cheese came within a management decision of losing its connection to the dale it’s named after entirely; production moved out, the historic link broken, and it was a local buyout rather than any guaranteed outcome that brought cheesemaking back to Hawes. That near-miss is easy to forget standing in a busy visitor centre today, but it’s a genuine part of why the creamery’s continued presence in the dale matters as much as it does.
When to Go
Wensleydale Creamery operates as a year-round indoor attraction, so the season matters less here than at most Secret Yorkshire destinations, though it’s worth pairing a visit with the wider dale, which changes considerably through the year. Spring and summer bring the Dales into their most walkable condition if you want to combine the creamery with time on the Pennine Way or the surrounding fells. Autumn and winter make the indoor cheesemaking viewing and the Cheese Experience exhibit a practical option regardless of weather, and Hawes itself stays open and working through the colder months in a way that purely outdoor Dales attractions don’t.
Getting There
By train, Garsdale station on the scenic Settle-Carlisle line is the nearest railhead, with onward connection to Hawes by bus or taxi. The Dales and Bowland Rambler bus service connects Hawes with the wider Yorkshire Dales region, useful if you’re building a visit around public transport rather than a car. By car, Hawes sits on the A684 in Upper Wensleydale, with the creamery signposted from the town centre on Gayle Lane.
Where to Eat and Drink Nearby
The White Hart Inn, Hawes, is a 16th-century former coaching inn directly on the Pennine Way in the centre of town, serving locally sourced food and real ales in a traditional bar with an open fire, a short walk from the creamery itself.
Where to Stay
The White Hart Inn, Hawes. Five ensuite rooms above a working coaching inn in the centre of Hawes, with views over the town’s rooftops, a practical base for exploring both the creamery and the wider Dales.
Worth Knowing
Wensleydale cheese traces back to around 1150, when French Cistercian monks brought a continental cheese recipe to Jervaulx Abbey in Lower Wensleydale, one of the more clearly documented origin stories among Britain’s regional cheeses.
The monks switched from sheep’s milk to a blend including cow’s milk during the 14th century, still within the monastic period, a detail that predates the abbey’s dissolution by around two centuries.
The modern Hawes creamery closed in May 1992 when production moved to Lancashire, and only a local management buyout later that year brought cheesemaking back to the dale the cheese is named after.
Practical Tips
Book Cheese Experience tickets online in advance, particularly during school holidays and summer weekends when the centre gets busy.
Check current opening hours on the creamery’s own website before travelling; hours for the shop, coffee shop and paid exhibition can differ from each other.
Allow at least two hours if you want to see the viewing windows, the Cheese Experience exhibit and the shop properly, longer if you’re combining the visit with lunch at Calvert’s Restaurant on site.
For walking routes around Hawes and the wider Wensleydale area, including sections of the Pennine Way, the AllTrails app has several logged options starting from the town.
Combine a visit with Jervaulx Abbey itself if time allows; the ruins sit a short drive away and give real physical context to where the cheesemaking tradition actually began.
Reader Q&A
Did monks really invent Wensleydale cheese?
Yes, according to well-documented history. French Cistercian monks settled at Jervaulx Abbey in Lower Wensleydale around 1150 and brought a cheese recipe from France, originally made with sheep’s milk before cow’s milk was introduced during the 14th century.
Is the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes the original site?
Not the monastic original; that was Jervaulx Abbey, a short drive away. The modern commercial creamery in Hawes traces back to 1897, when local merchant Edward Chapman began buying milk from surrounding farms to make cheese at a larger scale.
Why is Wensleydale associated with Wallace and Gromit?
The Aardman Animations characters are frequently shown enjoying Wensleydale cheese in their films, a connection that has significantly boosted the creamery’s public profile and now contributes to its more than 200,000 annual visitors.
Did Wensleydale cheese production ever stop in the dale?
Yes, briefly. Dairy Crest closed the Hawes creamery in May 1992 and moved production to Lancashire. A management buyout later that year reversed the decision, and the visitor centre opened in 1994.
Nine centuries after French monks first worked out how to make cheese in this dale, the recipe is still being made a short drive from the abbey ruins where it started, a continuity that runs through the rest of Yorkshire’s food history as much as it does here.
