The Visitor Centre today is ... Wensleydale Creamery
- JULIE WHITE
- 2 days ago
- 19 min read
The Wensleydale Creamery Visitor Experience, a cheese lover's paradise, where curds, craft and community come together in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
I love cheese, but cheese hates me. I won't give it up, even though I'm lactose intolerant! So, a cheese visitor experience might seem like a dreadful idea for a day out for me, but trust me, good cheese is worth it. I couldn't resist a trip to the home of one of my favourite cheeses, Wensleydale, that firm yet creamy, crumbly, slightly acidic and often cranberry studded concoction, that paired with a port is a true delight, even if I pay for it later!
Many places can produce cheese called ‘Wensleydale’, but only true Yorkshire Wensleydale is handcrafted in Wensleydale itself. Cheese tourism may not be as flashy as a whisky distillery, a vineyard, a Disney park or a car museum, but in the Dales, fromage is a serious business. From farm gate to finished wheel, visitors are increasingly drawn to real, hands-on experiences, tastings, and stories behind the food they enjoy, and a thousand-year old tale of cheese, craft, culture, and Yorkshire grit, has over 350,000 visitors flocking to the Wensleydale Creamery every year.
Cheese tourism worldwide is also booming. France, The Netherlands and Italy, the birthplaces of countless iconic cheeses, have cheese routes and tours abound. The Swiss, famous for Emmental, Gruyère, and Raclette, even have a Swiss Cheese Passport, currently being revised, that I'm going to try out next year. And I've recently been lucky enough to visit the Tillamook Creamery, home to America's number one cheddar, for some dairy delights (Guide coming soon).
There are a growing number of UK producers now offering a deeper behind-the-scenes experience for the foodies out there. I've enjoyed Scotland's Ethical Dairy's Cheese Making Workshop, though my efforts were nowhere near as good as theirs. Quicke’s, from Devon have a fabulous cheese tour, as do High Weald Dairy in Sussex. And The Cheese Bar have gone from festival food truck in 2014, to the world's first cheese conveyor belt restaurants. So, there is huge consumer demand out there.
The World Cheese Awards roll round every November, the world’s largest cheese-only competition, gathering over 4,000 cheeses from 40 countries, all under the stern gaze of judges whose palates are finer than most of us can even imagine. The coveted 2025 awards saw Gruyère AOP Vorderfultigen Spezial 18 Months, made by Bergkäserei Vorderfultigen from Switzerland, crowned the World Champion Cheese, though the top 14 came hailed from Japan, Slovakia, the USA and the Netherlands, as well as three from the UK.
The International Cheese & Dairy Awards (ICDA), held in June, is the world’s longest-running and largest dairy awards scheme. Founded in 1897, awards are handed out to everything from your traditional Cheddar to butter, cream, yogurt, dips, and plant-based innovations. The entries are judged by over 250 industry experts, including chefs, buyers, and retailers. To win awards at both, as the Wensleydale Creamery have done, is proof that they know their stuff.
And of course, this guide is not complete without a nod to Aardman's Wallace & Gromit, the eccentric inventor and his loyal dog sidekick, who have been delighting film audiences for over 30 years, and who helped put Wensleydale cheese on the map. The animated films regularly feature Wallace indulging in the crumbly Yorkshire classic, introducing it to fans around the world.
A reminder that certain cheese isn’t just tasty, or award winning, but it’s part of pop culture too.
Visiting Wensleydale Creamery: What to Expect
The brand history
I love big, open landscapes, with drama and scale. It's why I moved to Scotland. The Yorkshire Dales is familiar to fans, like me, who grew up with the 1980s British TV series All Creatures Great & Small. Some of you will have found the glorious 2020 reboot of the story, now in its 6th season, being shown around the world, and been seduced by the character that does not get a mention on IMDb, the Dales themselves.
Tucked beneath moody, wind brushed heather moors, are gentle green valleys and fields, quilted with dry stone walls and dotted with distinctive, traditional stone, field barns. Those barns, a personal favourite of mine, with their long stones jutting out from the walls in rows, known as ‘throughs,’ were used to house cows in stalls during winter, with hay stored in the attached mew, ensuring milk production continued year-round, essential for a local dairy industry that has its roots going back nearly 1000 years.
Wensleydale cheese is more than just a taste of Yorkshire. It all began in the 12th century when Cistercian monks, from the Roquefort region of France, settled in Lower Wensleydale at abbeys such as Jervaulx and Fors. They brought with them cheese-making skills from Normandy, though their recipe was closer to Roquefort than to the Wensleydale we know today, and the craft quickly became part of life in the Dales. When the monasteries were dissolved in the 16th century, local farmers and their families kept the tradition alive, in small farmhouse dairies, adapting the recipe to use cow’s milk instead of sheep.
In 1897, Edward Chapman, a local merchant in the Yorkshire town of Hawes, set up a commercial creamery. He bought milk from nearby farms and began producing Wensleydale cheese on a larger scale.
In the 1930s, when the Hawes creamery was struggling, local farmer Kit Calvert brought together local farmers and creditors to keep it running. He standardised production and strengthened ties with local farms, ensuring every wheel maintained its crumbly texture and rich taste. The creamery honours him with the award winning “Kit Calvert Old‑Style Wensleydale,” a tribute to his dedication to craft and community.
In 1966, Calvert sold the creamery to the Milk Marketing Board, a statutory monopoly in the UK, that bought milk at a guaranteed price and then sold it back to cheesemakers. In 1970 Dairy Crest took over, the company behind Utterly Butterly, but closed the site in 1992, shifting production to Lancashire, no doubt igniting the passionate rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire, that dates back to the War of the Roses in the 15th century.
The proud Yorkshire folk were having none of that. Helped by lobbying from former leader of the conservative party, William Hague, who campaigned on behalf of the region’s rural economy, local managers and former workers staged a buyout, restarting production in Wensleydale itself.
A major milestone came in 2013 when Yorkshire Wensleydale was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status. This means only cheese made in Wensleydale, following traditional methods, can be called Yorkshire Wensleydale.
In 2021 Canadian dairy firm Saputo acquired Wensleydale Dairy Products in a £23m deal, to add to its portfolio, which includes British household names such as Cathedral City and Davidstow Cheddar. In 2025 it was announced that Saputo would shut the Creamery's packing facility in Kirkby Malzeard, which the Wensleydale Creamery had operated since 1953, and move its cheese packing operations to their state-of-the-art facility in Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Despite the proposed closure, Saputo has reiterated its commitment to the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, to preserve a critical link to the region’s cheese-making legacy.
Today, the creamery produces thousands of tonnes of cheese each year, from classic and flavoured Wensleydale and modern blue cheeses, while welcoming visitors who want to taste, explore, and discover a real Yorkshire treasure. As the biggest employer in this deeply rural area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the Creamery not only provides vital jobs for the community, but sources milk from over 40 local farms, and supports local businesses by stocking their produce in its Visitor Centre.
2024/25 was a record-breaking year for the Wensleydale Creamery Visitor Centre. In October 2025 they reported that footfall was up 16%, to a record 350,000 visitors, with their new cheesy afternoon tea emerging as a standout marketing success.
“This has been a real driver for footfall, attracting visitors of all ages — from families to couples — some of whom have travelled the length of the country to visit our market town of Hawes. We’re also looking at ways we can innovate and develop our food offering in the coming months, so watch this space.” (Trish Cannon, director of the Wensleydale Creamery Visitor Centre, Richmondshire Today Oct 2025)
The Visitor Centre design
In 1994 the Wensleydale Creamery opened their first Cheese Experience and in 2015, a refurbished visitor attraction was opened, designed in part by Williams Architects. It now employs over 200 staff, has an annual turnover of £27 million, and reportedly contributes £12 million to the local economy.
There's nothing lavish in the design of much of the visitor centre. This is a working dairy after all, so the it is much more functional and honest, but remains surrounded by gorgeous countryside. There's a large car park that caters for cars and coaches and the facilities are wheelchair accessible
It is worth noting that your furry friends are only allowed in the garden, where you can snack on ice cream, cakes, and sandwiches from the 1897 coffee shop.
In reception you can buy tickets for the self guided cheese experience. We booked online before our trip to Yorkshire, as this was Easter weekend and we had heard that this place can get very busy. To see it all needs a bit of planning. To make sure you see a cheese demonstration, you book a time slot on the day, though it's a first come, first served basis. Online tickets, which were only £5.95 (though the e-tickets online now look to be only £2.97 - a very odd amount), saves you any possible disappointment and can be booked up to 24 hours in advance of the timeslot you want, so we booked ours during our long drive down the day before.
We'd travelled a long way, so wanted to see it all, but many people use the creamery as a pit stop during trips in the area, just popping in for a coffee, lunch or to shop. In the reception area there's a map showing the local area and the around 40 dairy herds that are used in the cheese production, to reinforce that this is a truly local product.
Cheese making demonstration
Not wanting to miss anything, we headed straight for our booked slot to see the cheese making demonstration, which run every day at 10.30am, 12pm and 2pm and last for 30 minutes.
You can while away a few minutes looking at displays and artefacts while you wait for your slot. The benches soon filled up and our host gave us a knowledgeable demonstration of how Yorkshire Wensleydale is made. It takes about 4 hours to make a batch of cheese in the factory, so this little demonstration gave a short and sharp introduction to the process.
8 pints of cows milk are needed to make about 500g of cheese. The milk comes fresh from the farm and is pasteurised on site, which kills the bacteria. However, to give it the sour flavour that Wensleydale is so well known for, the on site laboratory create a specific starter culture that is added during production.
What we all appreciated was the screen above our host showing the up close detail of what he was doing. The mixture in his bowl was sliced into cubes to create milk curds, floating in the whey and onto this boiling water was added to scold them. The hardened curds were captured and the whey drained away. (They turn the waste whey into whey protein powder amongst other things he told us). Texture is added using a knife and salt is added for flavour and for preservation.
He whipped out a cheese mold and filled it with curd and it's popped in a cheese press. Normally this would take 24 hours, but our host pressed onto it and released more of the liquid. We were encouraged to try making cheese at home, though I'm not sure I'll be taking that up any time soon. This was left to dry for a little while and dressed in a cheese cloth, before one of the children popped a Wallace and Gromit sticker on it.
The floor was opened up for questions. We were told their cheese ages for different periods. A mature cheddar is aged for at least 12 months, and the Wensleydale usually 6-8 weeks. We also got told they make about 7 tonnes of cheese a day.
The artefacts were given context with a few added props and plenty of informative boards. Wensleydale cheese production used to be done in the summer, as cows were in calf during the winter. Each herd produced slightly different milk depending on what they ate, and the skill of the farmer's wives was to turn this milk into cheese.
The original Wensleydale cheese was sort of pickled, wheels with much more moisture and higher acidity with a looser texture and a brine like tang. Although highly prized, the wheels would mold easily and as cheesemaking moved into factories, the cheeses became drier and more consistent, easier to transport and sell, which resulted in them lasting longer.
The cheese press using large stones for weights was impressive. In fact stone was used not just for the walls of farm enclosures but also for many traditional cheese making tools.
I have a soft spot for old machinery, especially anything with lettering stamped or painted onto it, so the displays were a real treat for lettering lovers like me. My husband, an engineer, was equally happy as he always appreciates traditional machines in all their practical glory.
There is quite a bit of information on Kit Calvert who famously saved the Creamery from closure in the 1930s. In 1953 he built a new creamery in Hawes and introduced the “baby Wensleydale”, a 1 lb cheese which the average household might buy weekly. It was a hit and production rose to 250,000 per year by the 1960s. The Milk Marketing Board purchased Wensleydale Creamery for £500,000 in 1966 but persuaded Mr Calvert to continue to run it until he retired in 1967.
As well as being the great promoter of Wensleydale cheese, Hawes most famous and respected son was a passionate advocate of the Wensleydale dialect.
Production area
We head off to the learning centre in the production area.
You are greeted by a few woolly wonders, in the shape of life-size Wallace and Gromit characters, knitted by the Hawes Yarnbombers, a group of six friends brought together by their love of knitting and crocheting. You can have your picture taken with them, for a small donation to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Wensleydale cheese became an international hit when it appeared in the Wallace and Gromit films, but this was purely by chance. Animator Nick Park admitted that he chose the cheese simply because it had a good name, and had no idea the creamery was in such financial difficulties at the time, Sales shot up after the film, and the Creamery still credits the films with saving the brand. The characters, so familiar to most of us, appear on some of the brand's cheeses, and pop up all through the visitor centre.
There's one wall with the brand story mapped out on it, including the evolution of the logo and the launch of one of my favourites, Yorkshire Wensleydale with Cranberries, developed in 1996 and now one of the top blended cheeses in Britain. Though now often copied by other brands, the original is always best for me.
There's more dairy machinery in here too.
The wall displays are simple and easy to digest, with plenty for the enquiring mind, no matter how old they are.
And there's a lot of tactile exhibits and interactive games, which even I enjoyed. We all crave interaction, and a sense of achievement.
As you can see by these simple examples, many brands have started to use gamification to create engaging visitor experiences.
There are lots of selfie stations, and plenty for the little ones, and the young at heart, to interact with whilst learning a few facts.
And I am a sucker for a vintage bicycle, especially one with a basket and some lettering. Can you imagine going up and down the cobbled streets of Yorkshire on one of those.
Why not grab a seat at the Wallace and Gromit selfie station.
The wall is adorned with a chronology of the history of the animations, from the concept and fun facts about production, to the awards they have won and the charities they have supported. Up there is the time when the Creamery in 1995 received a postcard telling them to watch 'A Close Shave' on their televisions that Christmas Eve, as it would be in their interest. The link was born.
And everyone loves a good colouring in page.
Next we headed up to see the production happening. The glass walled viewing gallery gives you a glimpse at staff at work, vats being stirring and wheels being formed.
Being a working factory, you have to remember that not every day is a working day and sometimes your visit might coincide with shift changes.
Now, you might see just a bunch of metal tables and tanks, but a helpful infographic explains the different parts of the production facility.
And, if you want to know more, then just press a few buttons and you're sorted.
And there's a few screens to interact with, so you shouldn't have to queue up for long to ask those burning questions.
Fun Fact - Did you know that the idea for Wensleydale and Cranberries was born in a pub? A casual drink between a member of the Creamery team and a friend who supplied dried fruits sparked the notion that they could be combined into the cheese. Yorkshire Wensleydale has gone on to account for over a quarter of the brand's sales, and has won numerous awards and is exported globally.
Cheesemaking isn't without its environmental footprint. It uses a lot of water and energy, cows produce methane, and whey needs careful handling to avoid polluting water sources and the countryside. To tackle this, behind the scenes, the Creamery is doing some clever things. Whey doesn't just get made into whey powder, but it is turned into green energy to heat local homes.
Repurposing the waste whey also halves the Creamery's water use.
The newer parts of the visitor centre were designed with high performance insulation and a heat recovery system, with a green roof to support local wildlife and to control temperatures indoors and a water recycling plant.
Guided cheese tasting
Turn another corner and it is time to try before you buy, at the guided cheese tasting counter, with bowls filled with numerous delectable morsels for you to munch on.
There might be a wall graphic telling you some of the tasting notes to look out for, but the lovely lady behind the counter added some more background information and we left with a few handy hints as to what to purchase in the shop.
Even my blue cheese hating husband liked the Wensleydale Blue.
Shop - The Taste of Yorkshire
The creamery investing in a new food hall and cheese shop in 2023, stocking over 20 artisan cheeses from their own brand.
Expect to find classic Yorkshire Wensleydale, modern blues, spicy versions, flavoured blends, chutneys, companion crackers, and gift packaging, and you can taste most of it all here again before you buy. I dread to think how much they spend in samples every day, as there were people just eating them and buying nothing.
We did notice that you even buy your cheese in the shop and create your own cheeseboard, to enjoy in the café, after they've added a few extra flourishes. Quite novel.
And you can take your delicious, dairy delights home in one of their handy tote bags.
The shop also stocks lots of cheese from other local dairies.
Good to see the hand-made, Halloumi style offerings from Yorkshire Dama Cheese, who's founders fled Syria as refugees and have gone on to create their Syrian cheese (a squeaky semi-hard cheese), for UK customers, who are lapping it up.
The micro dairy of Curlew Dairy, which has been going since 2019, saw founders Ben and Sam pack in finance jobs to seek a slower pace of life, making award winning small batch cheese.
Like any good farm shop, there's much more than cheese on offer.
Local delicacies include things like ice cream, fudge and even small batch spirits from the likes of Spirit of Masham and Masons of Yorkshire.
But if you need anything from tea towels to toys, then this is the place to buy them.
And if you didn't get enough of Wallace and Gromit then there's plenty to pack into your suitcase or backpack.
Calvert's and the 1897 Coffee Shop
The on site restaurant, Calvert's, is where you get their Cheesy Afternoon Tea, launched just before Christmas 2024, from just £19 per person.
It is worth noting that this is subject to availability on the day, and you need to wait for a booking slot, something we did not have time for. Currently you cannot book it in advance, or get a gluten free option, though they're working on this apparently. It comes with my favourite daily staple, Yorkshire Tea, which is a plus, and it appears to feature a few different cheeses in savoury and sweet concoctions. They even change up the offerings during the festive season. It'll be something I'll order next time I'm passing.
The extension that houses the updated café uses local stone and materials and a green sedum roof to harmonise with the Dales vernacular. We ate in the 1897 coffee shop and I had the toasted Currant Hot Cross Bun (it was Easter folks) for £3.50, served with a slice of Yorkshire Wensleydale & Wensleydale Creamery butter. Delicious. I am a northern lass, so fruit cake and cheese is just normal.
My other half had the Yorkshire Wensleydale & Red Leicester Cheese Scone, served with Wensleydale Creamery butter and a chunk of cheese. It was very tasty he said.
They do breakfast items until 11am and then cakes, pastries, soup and light bites. I don't recall anything over £10, which makes it pretty decent value.
The large terrace was empty but had plenty of seating. And the views, well they're to die for! This is God's country after all.
Online recipes
There's a wide collection of recipes using the Wensleydale Creamery products available online, sweet, savoury and often surprising concoctions, that are a great resource that should not be overlooked. Just another way the brand is connecting with customers, long after their visit and there are plenty on there that I have tried myself.
In conclusion
The Wensleydale Creamery should be right up there on anyone's bucket list for Yorkshire. It succeeds because it marries authentic production with carefully considered visitor centre design, education, fun and narrative storytelling.
While their products can be found in supermarkets up and down the country, you get so much more buying from the dairy itself. Their online shop closed in 2024, to much consternation, and this might be a missed opportunity, especially for seasonal hampers, the likes of which I tend to buy for friends and family around the country. The brand were praised for supporting local businesses through their online store during the pandemic, and with more people turning to online shopping, I wonder what the reasons were for this decision. Maybe it was due to new owner's Saputo's move of the packing plant to Warwickshire?
I find the online recipes from many of the brands that I visit an ongoing treasure. Who thought of pairing my Dutch apple cake with Wensleydale and Cranberries? They did.
So, if you're driving through the Dales, make a pit stop at the Wensleydale Creamery. You won't be disappointed.
How long was the visit?
We stayed for 3 hours, but we did have something to eat.
How much are tickets?
We paid for our own tickets and this was not part of any advertising.
We did the Cheese Experience, which cost £5.95 per adult, and there are reductions for children and families. In fact, under 16s go free every weekend and during school holidays.
It is worth booking online if you can, as they do sell out fast, but the creamery also save some slots during the day for walk in customers.
Afternoon Tea for Two is from £19 per person.
Opening times
It's always worth checking with the Creamery for their current opening times, as they can vary throughout the season. There's also lots of parking on site.
Currently open 7 days a week:
Cheese & Gift Shop: 9am – 4pm
Calvert’s: 11am - 3.30pm
Coffee Shop: 9am – 3.30pm
Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese Experience: 10am – 3.30pm
Address: Gayle Ln, Wensleydale, Hawes DL8 3RN
Website: Wensleydale Creamery
Getting here:
If you’re driving, plug DL8 3RN into your sat nav and follow the winding, picture-postcard roads through rolling hills and stone walls. The nearest train stops at Northallerton, from where a bus or taxi whisks you the rest of the way. The nearest bus stop to Wensleydale Creamery is in Hawes, at Market Place, a 2 minute walk away.
We were driving down from Perthshire, and took the A685 just after our favourite Tebay Services.
Where we stayed:
We were on a 3 day Easter weekend road trip, through Yorkshire and the Dales, and stayed in Masham, in an 18th-century Georgian inn, the King’s Head Hotel, situated directly on Yorkshire’s largest market square.
They offer 27 en-suite bedrooms and are dog friendly. Our room was situated in the rear of the hotel, in converted barn-style buildings, and was very quiet.
We had dinner and breakfast in the hotel and received a very warm Yorkshire welcome.
What else is there to see close by:
The Yorkshire Dales is just such a wonderful place to visit, with countless things to see and do. Grab your walking boots and your waterproofs and explore the natural world and the bountiful charming shops and cafes.
The Dales Countryside Museum is housed in Hawes’ former Victorian railway station. A cracking little museum, café and outdoor trail, with exhibitions on mining, farming, textiles and other local industries.
Cotter Force is a scenic and easily accessible waterfall, painted by JMW Turner, and is only 5 minutes by car from the creamery.
On this trip, we were on our way to Masham, about 27 miles away, home of two excellent and nationally known breweries that you can visit: The Black Sheep Brewery and Theakstons (guide coming soon). Both we can highly recommend.
If, like me, you are a fan of the utterly charming Channel 5 series All Creatures Great & Small (2020 onwards - syndicated around the world), or even the original series from the late 1970s, which shows my age, then the Dales has a host of filming locations that will be very familiar.
But the World of James Herriot Museum in Thirsk is probably a great place to start, as it is the real life, fully-restored 1940s home and surgery of James Alfred ‘Alf’ Wight (1916-1995), who's books, written under the pen name James Herriot, inspired the TV adaptations. It's 43 miles from the creamery, which takes over an hour due to the winding countryside roads, but it's well worth the trip as it's got hands-on exhibitions and tonnes of Herriot memorabilia. And if you fancy a trip to the fictional Darrowby in the latest series, then head to the market town of Grassington, where you can grab a pint at the Devonshire Inn, which doubles as The Drovers Arms, where James, Tristan and Siegfried often gather.
Further reading
If you like food brands with visitor experiences, then check out our guides to World of Coca Cola, Starbucks Reserve Roastery Chicago, Lavazza Museum and the Pez Museum and Factory Tour. More food related visitor guides coming soon.
Please note - I'm real
I visit every brand visitor centre and experience myself. My feedback is real, based on a single visit, but informed by years of experience designing and exploring brand experiences all over the world.
I love writing my own reflections, diving into a brand's history, doing the research and looking at spaces through the eyes of a commercial interior designer. With over 30 years of working with customers, I also enjoy watching how guests interact with guides, displays and spaces. Everything I share is honest, personal and entirely human, not AI generated.
That authenticity is important to me, and if it's important to you and you want to work with me, or share your experiences or want to suggest others, then I am happy to be contacted via this website.
Photographs: ©Julie White unless noted otherwise
Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed are solely my own. I paid for the tours in full and any comments reflect my personal experiences on that day. Please drink responsibly. Please visit and garner your own thoughts and feel free to research the brand and the visitor centre in question.
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