Hartington and the Cheese Dairy
There has been a Creamery on the site since it was opened by the Duke of Devonshire in 1876. Prior to that it was ridge and furrow water meadows alongside the river Dove and there have never been any houses on any part of the proposed site.
In 1900 it was sold to John Nuttall and became famous for its prize winning Stilton Cheese. For most of its history Hartington was extremely proud of its ‘world famous’ creamery, which employed many villagers and used traditional cheese making techniques.
However in the last decade or so there was tremendous expansion. Field boundaries were moved, the site expanded, new buildings erected and automated cheese making processes introduced. Despite the workforce growing to almost 200 only 5 village residents were employed at time of closure.
Dairy Crest the owners sold to a rival Long Clawson from Leicestershire who closed the plant in March 2009. It was bought by the developer in 2010.
Ironically, if the rapid and recent expansion of the site had not happened perhaps the site would not have closed and certainly there would have been far less Brownfield site on which a Developer can propose to build.