About us

Three generations of artisan cheesemaking in Somerset

White Lake Cheese was started by Roger Longman properly in 2004, but cheesemaking on this farm goes back a lot further than that. Roger’s grandparents were making Cheddar here at Bagborough Farm in Somerset in the 1930s, and his parents carried on after them. As a boy, Roger quite literally had to walk around wheels of Cheddar in the family home.

Roger wanted to be an engineer (which feeds in a lot to our cheesemaking today), and he wasn't particularly interested in cows, so things were going to change when he eventually came back to the farm.

When White Lake began, goat's cheese in Britain was still fairly niche and people tended to think of it as one particular style of cheese, but we wanted to prove something the French had known for years: goat's milk can make an enormous range of brilliant cheeses.

"Soft ones. Hard ones. Blue ones. Washed-rind ones. Fresh ones. Wrinkly ones. Beautiful ones. Occasionally rather strange-looking ones."

That idea has pretty much driven White Lake ever since.

Our goat's, sheep's and cow's milk for cheesemaking

Today we make cheese from goat's, sheep's and cow's milk, sourced from trusted producers including our own 800 strong herd of French Alpine goats here at Bagborough Farm.

We make more than 20 different cheeses and we're nearly always experimenting with another one. We take inspiration from everywhere, France. Italy. Switzerland. The cheeses we grew up around and something one of the team has tasted on holiday. A technique we've read about. Then we come home and start playing.

Our dairy at Bagborough Farm is designed around small-batch production, which gives us the freedom to experiment, refine and keep developing what we do. It takes an extraordinary number of people to raise a cheese properly. There are cheesemakers making it, people caring for it as it matures, people turning and washing it, cutting it, wrapping it (which does need to be seen to be believed), packing it, selling it and getting it safely out of the door.

Recognition

Our award winning cheese

We've been lucky enough to win rather a lot of awards over the years, and every one of them is recognition of the amazing team behind our cheeses. Our cheeses have been recognised at some of the UK’s most respected cheese awards for many years.

Pavé Cobble was named Supreme Champion at the British Cheese Awards in 2017, followed by Sheep Rustler in 2018 and English Pecorino in 2019. More recently, Tor was named Supreme Champion at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2025, with Shilling taking Reserve Champion, while Driftwood was crowned Champion at the Mid Somerset Show in 2026.

Pavé Cobble also earned Super Gold at the 2025 World Cheese Awards, and our cheeses have collected numerous stars at the Great Taste Awards over the years.

It's always lovely when the experts recognise what we're doing, but there's something particularly special about knowing that cheese lovers themselves enjoy what we make.

Of course, awards aren't just nice things to put on the shelf. They're a benchmark. British cheesemaking gets better every year, and entering competitions lets us put our cheeses in front of people who really know what they're tasting and find out how we're doing.

"Then we go back to the dairy and try to do even better."

The science and craft behind artisan cheesemaking

Cheesemaking is an odd mixture of science, craft, instinct and problem-solving. Milk changes with the seasons. Tiny alterations in temperature, cultures, moisture or maturation can completely change what happens next.

Sometimes something works. Sometimes it doesn't and if it doesn't, we work out why and have another go.

That willingness to keep tinkering has given us cheeses such as Rachel, Driftwood, Tor, Eve, Pavé Cobble, Sheep Rustler, English Pecorino, Solstice, Glastonbrie and plenty more.

Some started with a sensible plan, others started as slightly mad ideas. Both approaches seem to work.

Made in Somerset

White Lake is based at Bagborough Farm in Pylle, just down the road from Glastonbury and we’re very proud of that heritage, so you'll find quite a lot of the county running through what we do.

Some of our cheese names come from the landscape around us. Some are washed in Somerset cider brandy or local beer. Some borrow ideas from cheeses made thousands of miles away and then give them a decidedly Somerset interpretation.

Even the name White Lake comes from here. The White Lake watercourse rises around the farm and runs through this landscape of pasture, water and dairy farming.

Growing sustainably

As White Lake has grown, we've expanded the dairy so that we can make more cheese without losing the small-batch approach that makes the business what it is.

We've also invested in renewable energy, including solar panels and a wood boiler, as part of our effort to reduce our impact and build the business responsibly for the future.

Our expansion has been supported in part by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and helps us to train more cheesemakers, employ more local people and keep building specialist cheesemaking skills here in Somerset.