CHEESE is the theme of a new development which has opened at a farm shop near Hook.

Newlyns Farm Shop in North Warnborough has launched a brand-new cheese room, offering customers a variety of artisan cheeses, with many coming from the local area including Tunworth, Barkham Blue, Waterloo, Wigmore, Rosary Goats, Lyburn Old Winchester, Lyburn Smoked and Stoney Cross.

The shop also sells classic Stilton from both Long Clawson and Colston Bassett, two of the finest of only five accredited producers in the world, along with Mayfield, the first cheese with naturally forming holes to be made in the UK.

Abby Janaway, one of the owners of the farm, said she had wanted to create a cheese room for many years, adding: “We wanted to develop the farm shop because it has always been about the meat we produce on the farm and we wanted to develop the cheese side and make the optimum environment for cheese to be sold in. When people buy the cheese, they will be ready to eat, and they don’t have to take them home to ripen.

“It is all cut to order and everyone can come and taste it so it’s about trying different cheeses and not always choosing the same ones.”

The first weekend of opening was busy, with customers receiving expert advice from Jo Moody, who is running the cheese room, and it is expected to be even busier as customers look to buy cheeses for the Christmas period.

The room is equipped to allow Newlyns to offer the cheeses at their most delicious – aged to perfection and in prime condition.

Each cheese is unique so there are different areas providing the correct temperature and humidity, including a maturing cupboard dedicated to ripening soft cheeses.

The farm shop is also opening a new fish room in November, with fresh fish being delivered straight from the boats.