Jonathan Crump: award winning Gloucester cheese producer

Jonathan Crump won the ‘Farmer of the Year’ and ‘Food and Farming Hero’ accolades at last year’s Cotswold Life Food and Drink Awards.

Jonathan Crump’s Gloucester cheeses are slices of history.

For more than two decades he’s built an exemplary herd of the heritage breed Gloucester Cattle and used the milk to produce Double Gloucester and Single Gloucester, cheeses that once played a significant role in terms of the both the local economy and people’s lives.

Double Gloucester, which has a distinctive orange colour, was made in the county and exported to many parts of the world while Single Gloucester, which is paler in colour, matured over a shorter period and has a flavour that’s creamy and buttery with a fresh citrus finish, was eaten closer to home.

Much of the milk for these cheeses was provided by Old Gloucester Cattle, one of the UK’s oldest breeds and a familiar sight in the Severn Vale as early as in the 13th century. Yet by the 1970s numbers of these chocolate brown cows with white stripes along their spines had dwindled due to the introduction of other types of cattle and the development of more intensive farming techniques and they reached the point at which they could easily have become extinct.

Jonathan Crump – winner of the Outstanding Contribution of the Year accolade at the 2024 Cotswold Life Food & Drink Awards with Wellness Interiors Creative Founder Sheron Ravi credit Simon Pizzey Cotswold Life Food and Drink Awards 2024Hatherley A dispersal sale at Wick Court in Arlingham, home of the Dowdeswell sisters in 1972 led to the livestock being taken on by several people determined to save this important piece of farming history, among them Joe Henson, father of broadcaster and Cotswold Life columnist Adam and the founder of the Cotswold Farm Park.

Jonathan got to know Gloucestershire’s native cattle while working at a stockman for Joe and was so taken by their heritage and gentle natures that he started building his own herd 40 years ago. In time he became inspired by Charles Martell’s efforts to revive the production of Double and Single Gloucester in the county and, after acquiring a Victorian press that had once belonged to the grandmother of a farmer in Frampton-on-Severn, began making his own.

Back then this was a brave move: Gloucestershire’s local food movement had yet to gain momentum and the best he could hope for was that his products would be stocked in local delicatessens.

Some 40 years on, Jonathan’s cheeses are much sought after and sold in several shops across the Cotswolds, including Gloucester Services on the M5. He’s also a familiar face at Stroud Farmers’ Market, which he attends on the first and third Saturdays of the month.

Jonathan Crump

Jonathan, who farms in Standish and also keeps sheep and pigs, has long been a stalwart member of the Gloucester Cattle Society, which works to promote the breed and protect its genetics, and he’s a regular exhibitor at the Royal Three Counties Show, at which he’s won a number of prizes.

Yet despite his work, and that of others passionate about the breed, numbers are still worryingly low, with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust categorising Gloucesters as a ‘priority breed’ on its latest watchlist.

Judges in the 2024 Cotswold Life Food & Drink Awards were impressed by the significant contribution played by Jonathan in maintaining and promoting the Gloucester Cattle breed and the quality of his cheeses.

Jonathan has said that his work will never make him rich in financial terms, but his life is rewarding and satisfying and he loves receiving positive feedback from people who love his cheese.

‘I spend my days working in glorious countryside with beautiful animals and I’m continuing part of Gloucestershire’s heritage. I couldn’t ask for more,’ he said.