Lucy Appleby

Florence Lucy Appleby MBE (née Walley; 1 February 192024 April 2008) was an English traditional cheesemaker. She created 'Mrs Appleby's Cheshire' which, by the time of her death, was the last remaining Cheshire cheese to observe the traditions of using unpasteurised milk from the farm herd, being bound in calico cloth and matured on-farm. Appleby co-founded the Specialist Cheesemakers Association to defend the use of unpasteurised milk in cheesemaking.

Early life and education One of eight children, Lucy Appleby was born Florence Lucy Walley on 1 February 1920 to a farming and cheesemaking family at Lighteach Farm, Whitchurch, Shropshire. She attended Whitchurch Girls School which was integrated into Sir John Talbot’s School in 1936.

She learnt cheesemaking from her grandmother and mother and went on to study it at Cheshire School of Agriculture (now Reaseheath College) under the direction of a Miss Bennion, Chief Dairy Instructress and proponent of traditional cheesemaking techniques.

Cheesemaking The Applebys' cheese company was founded in 1952.

Appleby's ambition was to revive a cheese that had been made on 2000 farms as recently as 1914 but whose production had declined to less than 50 producers by the time Lucy started the Appleby's cheese company. In 2017, the Appleby family was the only remaining regular producer of unpasteurised milk farmhouse Cheshire.

Lucy Appleby took a number of decisions as a cheesemaker that went against the emerging trends and pressures of her time but which preserved the authenticity and quality of Appleby's Cheshire.

At the time that Appleby began making cheese at Hawkstone Abbey Farm cheesemakers were experimenting with binding cheeses in wax, rather than the traditional calico cloth to reduce moisture loss and thus increase yield. Appleby rejected this method because she believed that calico allowed the cheese to breathe and better flavours to develop as a result.

As was customary at the time, the Appleby's cheese was initially sold through the Milk Marketing Board (MMB). But over time the MMB became less aligned with the Applebys' relatively small scale, artisan approach and in 1982 they broke ties with the organisation. This meant their cheese could be marketed for the first time under the family name. After raising her children she returned to cheese-making using her own recipe.

Lance Appleby died in 2003 and Lucy Appleby died on 24 April 2008.

Awards In 2001 Lucy and Lance Appleby were both awarded MBEs for their services to cheesemaking in Shropshire.