See Cheese Being Made. (The Cheddar Gorge Rural Village)

Member Name: daseaford

Product:	The Cheddar Gorge Rural Village
Date:	15/01/02 (1049 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Much to see and do.

Disadvantages: None.

The rural village is a wonderful place to visit, situated at the Cheddar Gorge in Somerset and has a whole collection of traditional crafts and skills on display here. The village brings together a whole number of the traditional crafts of skills of Somerset and allows you to try and sample many of the products.

In the village you can see or try:
Cheese making.
Cider tasting.
Candle making.
Fudge kitchen.
Cider jar making.
Lace making.
Pottery.
Art Studio.
Restaurant.

Admission to the village is £1.50 for adults and £1 for children. The centre is open seven days a week from late March until the end of October. (10.00am to 4.00pm)

For us the most interesting section was the cheese making. This is a real working dairy and you can watch through large glass windows as the cheese makers work the curds and whey to produce the traditional Cheddar Cheese. There is also a display of the full cheese making process with full descriptions and photographs, that gives very detailed information. Also there is a video playing showing all the different cheese making stages. To produce a round of cheese takes about 7 hours and this company is currently producing two or three rounds per day. After the cheese is made it is then left to mature and this can be anything from 9 months to 2 years.

I was totally fascinated by the cheese making and we must have looked very interested because as we were watching the cheeses being made the senior cheese maker came out from the dairy and asked us if we would like to go into the cheese store. This was a great bonus for us as this gentleman informed us that he has been making Cheddar Cheese for 45 years and he kindly spent about half an hour telling us all about the cheese and how it is made and cared for. This was truly fascinating.

Admittedly the muslin covered cheeses do not look very appetising in the store as the outside of each round is covered in mould as the c
heeses mature. Each of the rounds weighs 56lb and is worth between £300 and £450 depending on its maturity. There is also the smell. The whole place has the smell of sour milk, but it is well worth putting up with this to see this fascinating exhibition.

After looking at the cheese making you can go into the cheese shop where you can taste all of the cheeses at various strengths and ages. Most people, like us, bought some cheese there. You can go into the shop without going to the exhibition and it was busy, especially with people trying cheese after cheese, until they found one that suited their palate.

After trying the cheeses you can move over to the cider shop where there is an enormous number of different locally produced ciders, most of which you cannot find outside of the Somerset area. Here you are encouraged to taste the cider and there is a choice of about half a dozen ciders to choose from and try. Just remember if you are driving, because some of these ciders are very strong!

In the pottery you can try your hand at making a pot. This is not available all of the time, but times are displayed when you can have a try at pot making. If art is more of an interest to you then you can join a class in the art workshop.

Unfortunately the candle making workshop was not open during our visit as I would have liked to have seen that. The restaurant/tea room was open where we enjoyed a pleasant cup of coffee, although it was not the most inviting tea room I have ever been in. It was a bit cold and plain.

The shops and workshops are all situated around a pleasant central garden area where there are a number of seats where you can stop and relax for a while.

We had a very interesting and enjoyable visit to this craft village and certainly learnt about the rural crafts of Somerset. If you in the Cheddar Gorge area then I would certainly recommend a visit.

Summary: