Towards the end of the 1970’s, Robin Congdon became one of the first farmers to commercially milk sheep in the UK. He bought a small flock of Friesland sheep and began making sheeps’ milk yoghurt, which he mostly sold in London – including to the newly opened Neals Yard Dairy. Yoghurt making then turned into cheese making (for a longer shelf life) and Labne (a middle eastern style soft cheese made from strained sheeps’ milk yoghurt) was made.
Around 1979, Robin went into partnership with landowner and philanthropist Maurice Ash and set up a cheese dairy and milking parlour on a smallholding at Beenleigh, near Totnes – this is where Beenleigh Blue gets its’ name from.
During this time, he assisted Izabella Carroll (who had previously worked at Neals Yard Dairy with Claire Ash – Maurice’s youngest daughter) and Maurice in setting up Sharpham Creamery – they developed a brie-type cheese to use their jersey cows’ milk.
Meanwhile at the smallholding, Robin expanded production of Beenleigh Blue, by buying in additional sheep’s milk and bought in goats milk to develop Harbourne Blue.
Sarie Cooper joined Robin in 1983, having learnt how to make cheese on various smallholdings and in the small commercial dairy set up by Dartington Hall Trust. At this time Robin only had about 10 acres of land at Beenleigh and Maurice Ash had recently bought some more farmland adjacent to the Sharpham Estate, so offered Robin a new partnership on a 100 acre farm with the opportunity to milk many more sheep.
In 1986 Robin and Sarie opened a cheese shop in Ticklemore Street in Totnes (still in existence today, but run by “Country Cheeses” since 2007), where they established a small cheese dairy in the side room, but the location proved very inconvenient for a commercial operation. Maurice came to the rescue again, with the offer of a small patch of land, on which they could build a new cheese dairy and a small house – after several re-fits, this is still the current cheese dairy.
With a farmer sourced to take over the farm and the milking of the sheep, Robin and Sarie were able to focus their full attentions on making cheese and running the shop – it made sense for them to develop an extended range their own cheeses, to sell in their shop. Over time, Robin and Sarie developed;
Ticklemore Goat – a semi hard goats’ milk cheese, moulded in colanders
Devon Rustic – a semi hard cows’ milk cheese, moulded in colanders
Devon Herb & Garlic – a softer “Boursin” type cows’ milk cheese
Chesvit and Rook’s Nest – washed-curd sheeps’ milk cheeses (which was matured by James Aldridge for us.
Devon Roan – a washed-curd and washed-rind cows’ milk cheese
With the production of Beenleigh being seasonal (following the French tradition at Roquefort only milking the sheep from January till June), so Robin developed Devon Blue – originally called Beeson Blue after the farm that the cows’ milk was sourced from.
We were lucky enough to ride the wave of excitement over the new speciality cheeses being developed in the 1980s and 1990s greatly helped by such enthusiasts as Patrick Rance, Randolph Hodgson, and James Aldridge; all of whom encouraged the creation of a new tradition of cheesemaking in this country.
The recipe for Rustic was sold to Sharpham Creamery and more recently, Ticklemore Cheese took the decision to focus solely on blue cheese and the recipe for Ticklemore Goat was given to Sharpham Creamery, which they still make today, under the name “Sharpham Ticklemore Goat”.
Ben Harris started working for Ticklemore Cheese in 2002 and using his farming upbringing and his previous chef disciplines to progress in cheesemaking and eventually became the Manager when Robin retired.
Ticklemore Cheese was sold to Ben (and his wife, Laura) in October 2023.
Ticklemore Cheese Dairy 