AN AWARD-winning cheese shop has moved into a new location as it looks to expands its offering to customers.

The Courtyard Dairy has upped sticks from its current location near Settle to the former Yorkshire Dales Falconry Centre four miles west along the A65.

Owners Andy and Kathy Swinscoe have spent the six months renovating the new premises, creating a unique visitor centre and cheese-based café to complement their shop.

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“The fantastic support we’ve enjoyed since opening the shop just over four years ago has meant we now have to make the leap to a bigger property," said Andy.

"This is due in no small part to the people of Craven who have by their patronage helped us to champion what I call ‘proper’ cheese: made by hand on individual family farms.

"Cheese still made like this is hard to find, so it’s wonderful that our customers are enjoying it so much.”

The new premises are designed to champion and support ‘proper’ cheese in a way that could not be achieved in the current location.

Alongside the now-familiar shop and maturing room will be a small visitor centre telling the story of farmhouse cheese and cheese-making, a brand-new cheese-themed café under Kathy’s direct management, and a cheese-making room in which Andy will run courses on cheese-making.

There is potential in the long term to allow for further expansion of the business’s online offering (thecourtyarddairy.co.uk), and Andy hopes one day also to produce cheese commercially, utilising other buildings on the property that have yet to be developed.

“With all the spare sheds and land, we’d love to go even further,” said Kathy. "So the ten-year plan is to create a destination that really puts Settle on the map for farmhouse and artisan cheese.”

The shop has been awarded Cheesemonger of the Year twice, featured on top BBC television programmes, and recently enjoying a successful visit by Prince Charles.