This week marks a year since the devastating fire at our Longridge office and packing site on 6 November 2023.

We have much to reflect on – and plenty to look forward to. The past twelve months have been some of the most challenging in our history as a family business, yet thanks to the hard work, resilience, and commitment of our team, we have continued to pioneer and innovate.

From turning milk into cheese within hours of the fire and managing to get our soft cheeses onto Christmas cheeseboards throughout the UK (despite losing all of our stock in the fire), to moving our entire operation to the dairy, building a packing shed in a matter of weeks, and launching our biggest-ever brand advertising campaign for Blacksticks – we have accomplished things that would have been impossible without the collective strength of our team, customers and community.

Since the loss of Longridge, we have managed to operate entirely from the dairy but with limited space we are unable to mature our cheese on site. This means extra wagons to take our cheese to and from the dairy and extra milk tankers as we are unable to use all our milk.

We understand this is disruptive for our community, and it is tough for our team as well, who have days where they feel like they’re running a marathon in clogs!

But this is temporary – and we have a plan.

When crisis strikes, you reflect on everything that went before as well as what comes next. As farmhouse makers, quality cheese is always the guiding light for our decision-making and we have a deep desire to bring our cheese home to Wilson Fields Farm permanently. It is right to nurture our cheese from beginning to end at home, at the dairy.

We have been discussing this vision and our plans with Preston City Council since the summer and have submitted a formal planning application to build a state-of-the-art cheesemaking campus at the dairy that is inspired by the land and be a melting pot for innovation and ideas.

The proposed campus will be very different to the Longridge site (and, by the way, we currently have no plans for Longridge). Our building footprint will be about half the size, designed in harmony with the land and largely out of sight from the road. We will incorporate the latest technologies and processes to make the most of every metre, and by maturing and packing our cheese on-site, we expect to reduce our road traffic and food miles by approximately 50%, making our operation much more sustainable.

Our goal is to have the dairy campus built and operational within two years of the fire. It is an ambitious target, but achieving it is crucial for us to be a sustainable business and remain an integral part of our local rural economy. Securing timely planning permission is key, and we are asking for your support to help us get back on our feet …without clogs on!

We will be at Whitechapel Village Hall on Saturday 16th November at 2pm to discuss these plans and answer any of your questions. Please drop in and say hello.

Our recovery following last year’s fire continues and over the last few months we have been busy getting our farmhouse cheeses back into the retailers and to homes across the UK. 

It would not have been possible without the unwavering hard work of our team and support from our local community and customers who have enabled us to cut and pack our cheese where it is made at our farmhouse dairy in Inglewhite.  

We are making great strides but with some cheeses taking 18 months to mature, our sales remain behind pre fire levels. Nevertheless, we are choosing to take all of the local milk we are committed to and will look to create the extra storage space we need to nurture the quality of our cheese as we rebuild our sales. 

In the short term, you are likely to see some activity around the dairy as we work with the seasons, with the help of local farmers again to create a safe, even more productive operating space for the winter months. 

Lastly, we have no updates on plans for our Longridge site at the moment. As we are approaching our busiest period in the run up to Christmas, cheesemaking at the dairy is our main focus. We will keep you updated as we continue to finalise our rebuild plans. 

Our Inglewhite dairy has long been the heartbeat of our business, but its impact over the last few months particularly, has been incredible. From the hard work of our brilliant team to the effectiveness of our temporary building where we’re cutting and packing cheese, it’s helped us to get our most famous blue cheese back on shelves across the country (along with many of our other cheeses which are now back in supply, too).

We have affectionately christened it the ‘Blacksticks Building’, in homage!

While the Blacksticks Building is getting us back on our feet post-fire, we’re also working through rebuild plans at Longridge. We’re focused on making sure the new building will serve our business, people and community for many decades to come and stand as proudly as our building did before it.

Finally, it’s the 15th anniversary of our Blacksticks 10K on 12 May, which feels extra special this year. As ever, it brings our community together and raises funds for Whitechapel C of E Primary School. We’re looking forward to seeing lots of you there and saying thank you for your support the last few months. It’s open to everyone,
whether you’re a social jogger or an expert runner, and all participants will receive a commemorative Blacksticks cheese and a surprise treat, too.

To register, visit https://bookitzone.com/steve_ashcroft/GJjFFX?pxRatio=1.25

We hope you’ve been seeing (and buying!) Blacksticks over the last few weeks. An incredible amount of work from our whole team to get it back into production, packed in our temporary site at the dairy, and on shelves across the country.

As our recovery from the fire continues, bringing our famous cheese Easter eggs to you this year is not within our reach, but as were never going to let that dampen our spirit or imagination… we’re bringing you cheese that thinks it’s an Easter egg instead! It’s a bit of fun that means you can still have Blacksticks on your Easter cheeseboards, which, let’s be honest, is the most important thing. You can buy our Easter W”egg”dge now in our cheese store.

Those local to our Longridge site may have seen a few people milling around and measuring up in the last few weeks. That is because we are actively thinking about our new building and how it can best support our business and our community now, and for the next 100 years. We are in the early stages but will continue to share more on our plans for the new building.

We have made great strides in the last few months, but we still have many more chapters to come in our recovery story. Our staff, customers and community will continue to play a really important part in that, and we thank you all for your ongoing support.

There are lots of moments that have made us proud over the last couple of months, but our latest news is particularly exciting.

Blacksticks is back!

That’s right, we’ve been making and maturing Blacksticks for the last 12 weeks, and today we start packing at our dairy and getting Blacksticks back on shelves throughout the UK – a huge moment.

You will also see a new look and feel across our Blacksticks packaging. This is something we worked on long before the fire, and there was no way we were changing our plans. We passionately believe that blue cheese is relevant all year round, not just for Christmas, and so we want to help people discover the magic of Blacksticks for different eating occasions. Our new packaging is just one way that we will do that, with lots more to come – watch this space.

You can already find Blacksticks on the deli counter at Morrisons and more retailers will be stocking Blacksticks over the next few weeks – look out for it in the cheese aisle of your local supermarket and keep an eye on our socials for further updates.

It's incredibly exciting to dive headfirst into 2024, embracing the idea of new beginnings and fresh starts. The hard work we put in over the Christmas season has positioned us perfectly for 'The Next Chapter', which involves packing at our farmhouse dairy. 

The demolition phase at our Longridge packing site is now complete, leaving us with a clean slate to envision the exciting possibilities the future holds.

Leading up to Christmas, we were bustling with activity, doing what we do best, producing cheeses, replenishing our stocks, and ensuring that our soft cheeses graced countless Christmas cheeseboards. As we continue to rebuild our cheese inventory, our focus at the dairy is shifting towards packing.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, there's no better way to express your love than with 'The Perfect British Cheeseboard'. Collaborating closely with our local contractors, we've created a dedicated space at the dairy for packing these delightful cheeseboards. Stay tuned for more information on where you can find them in the upcoming weeks.

Our demolition team is working hard to keep to timelines and are on track to clear the site by Christmas. We’re recycling materials recovered from the rubble where we can, reusing bricks, for example, to build walkways and paths at the dairy that are helping with the greater footfall and comings and goings as we’re working flat out in the short term to get the cheese stocks back into your fridge.

Farmhouse cheesemaking is a collective, community affair and it's all hands on deck at the dairy in the final push to Christmas. This week you will be starting to see Blacksticks trickle out into a few delis and online shops, and we have truckles available to buy via our online cheese store, together with our full range of soft cheeses.

It’s now been a couple of weeks since the fire at our office and packing site in Longridge.

A team from Pete Marquis, a local demolition firm, is in the process of clearing the site and making it safe; good progress has already been made and we are hopeful this initial phase of work can be completed by Christmas.

We really appreciate the ongoing support and understanding from local residents during this time and are working as fast as we can to minimise disruption before the Christmas break.

Meanwhile, at the dairy, our brilliant team is relentlessly focused on rebuilding our cheese stocks, and we are working seven days a week to achieve this.

In the short-term, we will be packing cheese at the dairy to ensure business continuity for our staff, suppliers and customers. For now, we are all about soft cheese. Whether from cows, goats or sheep, we have a soft cheese with your name on it, ready for your Christmas cheeseboard.

The way the local community has supported us has been incredible. Offers to help have come from all corners, whether it’s providing space for our team to congregate and have a cup of tea together, or ensuring fire crews on site have the refreshments and respite they need to do their work. We can’t name everyone who has helped, or offered to help, but they know who they are and we are extremely grateful. The strength of character shown by this community and all of our staff shows just how resilient we are when we work together.

The fire at our office and packing site is out and the area is now being secured for safety. We would like to thank the local community once again for their understanding over the last couple of days. This has been a very difficult time for everyone at Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses and as we move forward from here, your support will be more important to us than ever.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service remain on site today to manage hotspots in the debris. Local specialist heavy plant equipment is in place to help fire crews work safely and we are grateful to everyone involved.

We realise that the equipment and vehicles in and around the site, water pipes in the road and temporary traffic lights are causing ongoing disruption to our local community. We appreciate your ongoing patience and for giving the crew the space to do their work safely. Our staff want to help where they can and are clearing away debris in Longridge.

The fire at our office and packing site in Longridge has been contained, and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service have reassured us that they do not believe anyone was injured. 

We know there has been significant disruption to local businesses, schools and people in the area today, yet even still, we have had offers of help and support from every corner. Our community is at the heart of everything we do at Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses, and we’re so proud and thankful that our community has pulled together as it has done today.  

On the evening of Monday, November 6th 2023, we had a fire at our office and packing site. Our dairy, which is a separate site, was not impacted and continues to turn milk into cheese. Please bear with us, email hello@butlerscheeses.co.uk with any questions or queries and keep an eye on our socials for updates.