Cheese produced at the Wensleydale Creamery is made with cows milk from 36 farms in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The wild flowers, herbs and grasses that grow on the limestone meadows in the area, where artificial fertilisers and chemicals are restricted, give the milk, and hence the cheese, its unique and special flavour. Wensleydale cheese has been made in Wensleydale since 1150. Cistercian monks passed down the art to local farmers who made the cheese in their farmhouses. In 1897 Edward Chapman began to purchase milk from surrounding farms for the manufacture of cheese on a larger scale at his dairy in Hawes. The dairy, which has been handcrafting the traditional hard cheese for more than 100 years, was rescued from closure in the 1930s by Kit Calvert, and more recently with a management buy-out in 1992. It does not use sweeteners and its traditional, blue, smoked and mature varieties are all hand-crafted and cloth bound. Originally, Wensleydale cheese was sold as either "fresh" - white, or "ripe" - blue. The blue veined Wensleydale was the norm and it was only until production moved to the creamery that the white became more popular