Our ambition is to sell the British and Irish cheeses we like best. That means identifying interesting, characterful, or authentic varieties, but it also means selecting the individual cheeses that we want to sell. In any given year, one dairy may produce 350 batches of the same cheese. Some of those batches will meet our standards, others won’t. Only the most interesting, promising, or delicious will make it back to our maturation arches.

Cheese changes as it gets older. This is due to interactions between the fat, protein, moisture, bacteria, enzymes, yeasts, moulds and salt within the cheese. These interactions can be influenced by the conditions in which the cheese is kept and by the actions performed upon the surface of the cheese. Our maturation team works to provide the right conditions and to intervene at the right times to ensure that our customers have the best quality cheese possible.  

Online 

You can order our cheese online for delivery across Britain. Our website contains detailed descriptions, high-quality images, and informational resources, so that you can learn about whichever cheese you choose. Once you order, you can expect to receive your cheese in excellent condition: cut, wrapped, and packaged with care.  

Shops 

We have four locations in London – in Covent Garden, Borough Market, Islington, and Bermondsey. These shops are staffed with trained, knowledgeable cheesemongers, ready to help you find the cheeses you will enjoy the most. They are as welcoming to those who know very little about cheese as they are to the true fanatics. 

Wholesale 

Since the early 1990s, we have been selling cheese to shops and restaurants across Britain and around the world. Our aim is to ensure that the right cheeses arrive with the right customer — in perfect condition. To ensure this, our wholesale team works closely with our maturation team, allocating specific batches to our industry customers. 

To continue to improve British and Irish cheese, we must ask good questions and share the answers. How can we best nurture the deeply complex flavours that characterise our cheeses? How did people make cheese in the past, and what can we learn from them? We communicate our findings on our blog, at public events, and in conversation. 

We aim to foster an inclusive and vibrant cheese community. We invest in our employees, offering regular training opportunities and trips. We seek out talent, encouraging aspiring cheesemakers to see a viable future in our industry. We support industry events, where cheesemakers, academics, and affineurs can share their knowledge. Finally, we seek new customers. Every person who enjoys our cheese is another person who will demand more than the bland uniformity of the supermarket chiller cabinet.

We are continuously working to minimise our impact on the planet. We have eliminated plastic bags from our shops, replaced our fluorescent bulbs with LED, and doubled the size of our London electric delivery vehicle fleet. Moreover, we are championing cheesemakers who are minimising their own impact. Some have planted herbal leys to increase carbon sequestration on their farms. Others have cut out artificial fertiliser. We aim to support these efforts through initiatives like the Global Farm Metric trial.

In the 1970s, a community of food businesses focused on quality and simplicity cropped up in a formerly derelict corner of Covent Garden – the eponymous Neal’s Yard. In 1979, Randolph Hodgson joined their ranks and founded Neal’s Yard Dairy. What began as a small shop stocking Greek-style yoghurt, creme fraiche, and a couple of cheeses grew with Randolph’s immersion in the British cheesemaking community. He began visiting cheesemakers, learning about their work and bringing cheeses back to his shop. That is still the core of what Neal’s Yard Dairy does today.

We currently work with about 40 cheesemakers from Britain and Ireland. While varying significantly in their backgrounds and personalities, what all of them share is a commitment to a slow, hands-on approach to cheesemaking. It is a commitment we share. We are proud to have stocked Beenleigh Blue, Stichelton, and many more of our cheeses for decades. We hope they are part of our story for years to come.