A SPECIALIST cheesemaker has clinched a gold medal for the region for its work after it battled against the best in the industry nationally.

Shepherds Purse Cheeses, of North Yorkshire, won a gold along with four bronzes in the British Cheese Awards 2009.

Based at Newsham, near Thirsk, the company’s Mrs Bell’s Blue won the top award.

Mrs Bell’s Blue is handmade at the family run dairy using 100 per cent ewe’s milk and it won gold in the Speciality Blue category.

Bronze awards went to Shepherds Purse’s Yorkshire Blue and Buffalo Blue in the Speciality Blue class.

It also took bronze in the Cheeseboard category with Fine Fettle Yorkshire Cheese and Olde York.

Shepherds Purse took on 70 per cent of the cheese making industry which saw 189 makers enter with 884 entries.

The cheeses were judged by a panel of industry experts including cheese buyers, journalists, chefs and food critics.

Judy Bell, chief executive of Shepherds Purse, said: “We have won many accolades for our cheeses on the world stage, but it is still a huge thrill to be voted one of the best in Britain.

“Much of the British public still believe European cheeses are more interesting, more diverse and more likely to be made with raw milk than British cheeses, but this is far from the truth.

“We have some amazing British cheeses so I am particularly proud to be a gold medal winner in this year's British Cheese Awards, beating very strong competition.”