Stilton Cheese (1)

Long Clawson Manor House. Photo courtesy of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland.

Jean Morris: We were stopped you see by the government in 1939 from making Stilton because it was considered a luxury cheese and not an easily kept one, and we weren’t allowed to start again until 1952. Well immediately after the war the Danes sent in their Danish Blue type cheeses, people got a taste for them because there was no Stilton, so in to the 1950s we had to fight back for our market. And into the 1960s we were hearing that so called Stilton was being made again in the Commonwealth. Going back into the 1880s, there was a young man named Saxleby who came to my grandfather’s dairy. He learnt the trade and went out to New Zealand and was making until the 1930s. Well the young men did in those days, they went out with their trade to the Commonwealth. Well, in the 1960s, as I say, we were hearing that it was being made in the Commonwealth. The Association became worried about this, they thought it would be imported quite quickly; they applied for a patent. It was refused because who had heard of a patent for cheese? Just think how many different world varieties of cheddar there are, it’s made all over. They were refused, they took their case to the High Court, it cost them in 1968 over £5,000, and probably numerous blue cheeses to sway the judges, but they were granted the trademark which means that it can only be made in the counties of Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. So that is why. So, really we’ve got a monopoly but it’s up to us, as the Association is, to make a good quality product for our customers.

Interviewer: Was the Stilton Cheesemakers’ Association formed after that court case?

Jean Morris: No, before, before. Pretty well when they started up again, because they had hoped that the smaller dairies would be helped by the larger ones to market their cheese, because of transport and this sort of thing, because it was all lorries nowadays whereas years ago it would be the trains that took the cheese into various parts of the country you see.

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