One of our driving missions is to help preserve, support and promote artisan cheese-making in the UK so a highlight in the year is when we select, in collaboration with the Academy of Cheese, the new candidates who will receive the Chiswick Cheese Market Cheesemaker Grant. We had a record number of applications this year which made for exciting and difficult decisions but we are delighted to introduce the three 2026 recipients.
When Ethan Parry started Usk Valley Dairy with his parents in 2025, the ambition was clear: to make distinctive, small-batch cheeses using locally sourced milk in the Usk Valley.
Today, Ethan is running a purpose-built micro-dairy in South Wales, producing Gouda-style and Brie-style cheeses for farm shops, delis and food events.
Having been awarded one of this year’s three Chiswick Cheese Market Cheesemakers’ Grants, Ethan now has the opportunity to build on everything he has learned so far and develop the deeper technical understanding needed to consistently produce exceptional cheese.
“Everything so far has been very hands-on and largely self-taught,” Ethan explains. “That’s been great to a point, but now I want to understand more about the cheese we’re making.”
Please read the full article detailing Ethan’s cheese-making development on the Academy of Cheese’s website, here.
For Richard Inman, cheesemaking is the culmination of a long-standing fascination with how food is made.
His journey began at home, making cheese for friends and family. What started as an experiment gradually became something more serious, and in 2024 he founded the Buckinghamshire Cheese Company with the ambition of creating a truly local artisan cheese.
Now, after 18 months spent securing regulatory approvals, building food safety systems and fitting out his dairy, Richard is ready to bring his first cheese to market.
“The grant will help me close the gap between a cheese that is promising and a cheese that is consistently good,” he says. “And that is the difference that matters most right now.”
Read more about Richard’s extraordinary story and his promising blue cheese here.
Harriet McPhee has spent the past six years producing milk for artisan cheesemakers. Now, with a growing flock of dairy sheep, a herd of goats and an ambitious plan for her own cheesemaking enterprise, she is taking the next step: from supplying cheesemakers to becoming one herself.
Harriet’s journey into small-scale dairy farming began in March 2020 with just two goats. Six years later, she and her husband Chris are milking goats and sheep in Cumbria, supplying artisan cheesemakers across Cumbria and Yorkshire.
But the changing landscape of the artisan cheese industry has prompted Harriet to rethink the future of the business.
“Quite a lot of our markets have gone in the last year, or people have retired,” she explains. “We thought, well, we’ve got the milk, so let’s add value to it ourselves.”
That decision has led Harriet to apply for, and be awarded, a Chiswick Cheese Market Cheesemakers Grant, giving her the opportunity to develop the technical cheesemaking skills she needs to turn her milk into cheese.
Find out more about Harriet’s evolution as a farmer and cheese-maker here.