Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Cheshire Cheese - oldest in England


The Cheshire Cheese pub at Wheelock in Cheshire.
There are many pubs of this name in the county and, indeed, throughout the country. I like the way the lamp fitting also has the pub's name engraved on it.
Cheshire cheese is the oldest cheese in England. Dense and crumbly it is produced in Cheshire and four neighbouring counties: two in Wales (Denbighshire and Flintshire) and two in England (Shropshire and Staffordshire). It is first mentioned by Thomas Muffet in his book on nutition for the layperson, Health's Improvement, written circa 1580.

Wheelock village was named after the River Wheelock which runs through it, and comes from an old Welsh source meaning "winding river". The first recorded name for the village was Hoileck/Hoiloch in the Domesday Book. By 1396 the name had evolved to Quelock then in 1382 to Whelock. Two years later, it was Welock and by 1390 the name Wheelock was settled upon.

See also the Signs, Signs blog.

12 comments:

  1. You have eyes for nice details.

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  2. There I was thinking it came from Cheshire alone. Personally I quite like Derby cheese.

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  3. Boy, the things I don't know! Never heard of Cheshire Cheese...so I enjoyed your historical commentary about that and how Wheelock came to be.

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  4. Excuse me while I duck off into the kitchen to cut a bit of cheese Chrissy, seriously I am and it's 11 pm it's way too late for cheese, but the power of suggestion is too strong..

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  5. Thanks for you visits and comments at QDP. The iron work, signage, and info in this post are wonderful.

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  6. Love the old-timey lamp. Cool angle. :)

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  7. Great pub sign and nice framing to get the lamp in too.

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  8. I just like saying Cheshire Cheese. Lovely alliteration.

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  9. Nice photo!
    That was very interesting. The village had so many name changes. All of them took place 500 years before my town even existed! Great post!

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