A NORTH Yorkshire cheesemonger has scooped a top regional title.

Settle's renowned cheese shop The Courtyard Dairy was named best specialist retailer in the North West at the Farm Shop and Deli Awards.

The judges praised the store for supporting unique and small farmhouse cheese-makers in Britain, and lauded its focus on supplying rare and unusual cheese of only the highest quality.

“Receiving this prestigious award was a wonderful surprise!” said director Kathy Swinscoe. "We are really pleased that the judges recognised our commitment to supporting the makers of rare and unusual, traditional farmhouse cheeses, and supplying our customers with only the absolute best cheeses available.”

The nine Farm Shop & Deli Awards regional winners will now go through to the final for a chance to win the coveted title of Farm Shop and Deli Awards Retailer of the Year.

The national winner will be announced at the ceremony on Monday April 20 at Birmingham’s NEC.

“There are some truly brilliant regional winners offering a great service to their community, but also worthy of destination shopping," said chairman of the judges, BBC Radio 2 food and drink journalist Nigel Barden. "The British food and drink offer has never been better, as richly illustrated by the Farm Shop & Deli Awards Regional Winners.”

Kathy added: "Many of our cheeses are unique, and people have never heard of them before and that’s because we work with small farms that often only have 40-50 cows and are often the last in the area making unpasteurised cheese by hand.”