THE makers of Wensleydale cheese are hoping for record sales over Christmas as figures showed growth of 23 per cent in sales in Britain's biggest supermarket.

Sales of Wensleydale Cheese, made by the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, North Yorkshire, have shot up by almost a quarter in Tesco supermarkets across the country.

Sales have been strong but steady over recent years, but the release of the Wallace and Gromit film in the autumn has helped sales.

Wensleydale has a licensing agreement with the cartoon pair and sales are always stronger on the back of their film releases. The Hawes creamery has recently teamed up with the makers of Kettle chips to create a new festive crisp flavour - Wensleydale cheese and cranberry.

A spokeswoman for the creamery said: "Although the film has undoubtedly raised the profile of the cheese, the phenomenon dubbed 'the Wallace Effect' can't take all the credit for the increased sales.

"Even before the film was released, figures collated earlier this year showed that sales in London rose 71 per cent year on year."

She said although Wensleydale's strongest sales have always been in Yorkshire and Lancashire, more Londoners were buying traditional Wensleydale.

Exports of Wensleydale cheese are also at an all-time high, with £1m worth of orders for the Christmas period, most of which is en route to Canada and the US. The orders follow the creamery's marketeers visit to New York's Fancy Food Show earlier this year.