Graham Kirkham makes his cheese with the milk from his family’s own herd of Friesian cows.The cheese is made over three days, using a third of the curd from each day of cheese-making.

Kirkham's Lancashire is then cloth-bound and rubbed with the traditional butter, which allows the cheese to breathe and develop over a maturation period of two to six months.

The Kirkhams have been making cheese for three generations; and Graham learned to make cheese from his mother, who now helps her husband to milk the cows.

The family is the last maker of traditional Lancashire; and the three-day curd method comes from the days when farmers only had a few cows, and it would take three days to get enough curd to fill one cheese mould.

The flavour of the unpasteurised milk and the buttered muslin rind produces a rich and complex white Lancashire, which melts in the mouth. It also creates the desired ‘buttery crumble’, with a clean and lactic flavour.

* This is a hand-made, artisan cheese, which may contain naturally occurring blue veins. These are normal and intrinsic to the nature of this type of cheese and add to its character.