I am sure quite a few people will know already about The Courtyard Dairy’s purchase of the former Falconry Centre on the outskirts of Settle.

The plan is for Kathy, me and our two lovely children to live there, consolidate our business and eventually move all our operation up there.

Four years ago, after time spent working with cheese in France, Bath and London, Kathy and I moved to Settle to open our own small cheese shop. We wanted to run a shop that focused exclusively on quality and traditional-farm-made cheese.

Over the last four years we have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from the people of Settle and the Westmorland district.

This has enabled Kathy and I to make a quantum leap in order to grow our business and give us a more secure future within Settle. We love Settle and its people, and we want to continue to live and bring up our young family in the area.

The larger space available to us at the former Yorkshire Dales Falconry Centre will allow us to do several things with our business: increase the space for storing and further maturing cheese to make it truly special; incorporate a small information area showcasing information about cheese making and its history in the Dales; open a cheese-themed café; and build in a cheese making room.

The cheese making room will initially be used to run cheese-making courses and work as a development room for when we work with dairy farmers, but the five-year plan would be to find a budding cheese-maker to establish themselves there.

As part of all this, of course, will be a slightly-larger version of The Courtyard Dairy’s award-winning shop, as dedicated as ever to providing the very best of unpasteurised farm-made British cheese.

Until the move of the shop is completed, The Courtyard Dairy’s existing shop at The Courtyard will remain fully open for business as usual. Our plan is to have most of what I’ve described above open in the former Falconry Centre by the summer.

Thanks again for your continued support from Westmorland – without it, we couldn’t have achieved what we have so far. We are truly grateful.

Andy Swinscoe

The Courtyard Dairy

Settle