CE20_p40_p41_Godsells Cheese 10/8/2009 10:07 Page 1
Food Godsell’s Cheese
Words by Joanne Collier
artist, Jack Russell was painting a series of Cotswold hills. By the end of the 14th
illustrations of his home county, he came century there was a Gloucester cheese
to spend a day painting Marion’s herd, and butter fair, as well as a cattle
“
IT’S lovely having them
much admiring their colours and the way market.
around,” says Marion
in which they blended. During these and later times cheese
Conisbee-Smith of her
Another of the special characteristics of was of particular importance as a
Gloucester cattle is the quality of their source of nutrition as, before
herd of Gloucester cattle, milk, which has a high protein content refrigeration it represented a means of
while Liz Godsell describes
and contains small fat globules, making it preserving milk.
highly regarded for the making of cheese. It was during the 18th century that
those on her farm as “very
Liz and Bryan Godsell produce the the numbers began to decline, as a
good friends”.
Godsell Cheese products which are sold result of the introduction of the
On their respective areas of farmland
at the farmers’ market in Stroud and in ‘improved’ breeds such as the
at Bisley and at Leonard Stanley, these
shops and supermarkets in a number of Longhorn and the Shorthorn. By the
herds also have an important rôle to play
local towns. As well as their turn of the 20th century the
in the future of their kind, for our
Gloucester cattle, they also situation was recognised as
county’s native cattle are a rare breed.
keep a herd of Friesian cattle serious. The Gloucester
They are classified by the Rare Breeds
at Church Farm, Leonard Cattle Society was formed to
Survival Trust in its fourth most seriously
Stanley, one that has been in promote restoration of
endangered category, that of ‘at risk’.
Liz’s family for 200 years. numbers, and became
Categories are based on numbers of
It was in 2000 that, as a recalled to action in the
breeding females, and of Gloucester
farming diversification, they 1970s when, after
cattle there are only between 650 and
began cheese making and fluctuations, numbers were
700 of these remaining in the country.
brought in their Gloucester again worryingly low. These
Keeping her own herd was a long-time
cattle to enable them to are now regarded as stable,
ambition for Marion. “And being here in
make the Single Gloucester but with a need to maintain
Gloucestershire, it had to be Gloucester
cheese. This is a Protected Designated and to increase the numbers further.
cattle,” she says. The first arrivals, ten
Original (PDO) product, which, unlike “The cattle well justify such support,”
years ago, were Henrietta and Geraldine;
Double Gloucester cheese, can only be says Marion Conisbee-Smith, “for
Henrietta, four of her daughters, and her
made in the county of origin, and must they are not just ‘hobby’ herds, but
granddaughters, are still members of the
include the milk from Gloucester cattle. practical contributors to the farming
present herd.
The difference between the two, Liz systems of today. Well-suited to the
“Henrietta is the matriarch,” says
explains,goes back to early times in grass of their native habitat, they fit
Marion. “One look from her, and the
farming, when the cream from the well into extensive farming regimes,
others do what she is telling them to do.”
evening milking would be skimmed off to being able to over-winter outdoors,
Many of the heifer calves born here are
make butter. Next day the remaining milk with shelter and on well-drained
kept for breeding. The male calves are
would be added to the full-cream land.”
reared for beef. “I give them 30 months
morning milking to make Gloucester cattle have been the
of the best treatment before they leave,”
the Single Gloucester cheese. Double draught oxen that helped to till the
Says Marion.
Gloucester would be made from a double land, and the providers of both food
She enjoys playing her part in
full-cream (not partly skimmed) milking. and income for the farmers of the
maintaining this historic breed of our
The history of Gloucester cattle goes Middle Ages and their families. For
county. “Keeping a rare breed, and a
back many hundreds of years and they the 21st century, they can be at the
native one – it’s a nice feeling that you
are one of the oldest of our native forefront of the best of modern
are actually doing something to help,” she
breeds. From the 13th century they were agriculture.
says.
numerous in the Severn Vale and on the
“I enjoy genetics, so I also enjoy
working out the breeding programmes.”
There is much that we can learn from
the way of life of cattle, as from all
animals, she feels. “When I am feeling
really stressed I go to sit and watch the
cows. They eat the grass, chew, lie down,
have a drink of water – and I think, why
do I get so stressed? They have got it
right.”
When she used to make cheese from
their milk, she found a similar relief from
stress in working at an activity that just
cannot be hurried.
Gloucester cattle are indeed a delightful
sight to behold, with their striking black-
brown colouring, and the distinctive white
‘finchback’, the stripe running from the
small of the back and down over the tail.
When the former Gloucestershire and
England cricketer, and now renowned
40 COTSWOLDESSENCE | SEPTEMBER ~ NOVEMBER 2009 www.cotswoldessence.co.uk
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