House of Cheese was established in 1982 and is an award-winning cheese shop

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Tetbury, Gloucestershire

Retail

This award-winning family business has been supplying good cheeses since 1982. We specialise in the very best farm-made cheeses as opposed to the factory-produced characterless imitations so often seen in supermarkets. Our retail shop stocks about 120 types of cheese and a selection of the best of them appears on this website together with some of our other goodies. Because our overheads in the Cotswolds are relatively low we think you will agree that our prices reflect this when compared, for instance, to London retailers. In addition to our competitive prices we offer next day postage for any weight of order at a subsidised £7.95 per order.

We have a tiny shop in Tetbury that is open from 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday to Saturday. In 1993 it was voted overall UK winner of the Retail Cheese awards sponsored by 'The Grocer' and 'Dairy Crest'. Our reputation for quality and choice is well known in the area.

"Dear House of Cheese - Just a quick note to thank you for what was an exceptional selection of cheese, all in perfect condition. Thank you very much again. They really were exceptional. I'll be ordering again soon, and others who enjoyed your cheese so much have your details to place orders themselves. Kind regards, Richard"

"I have not had the opportunity since last Christmas to thank you and the House of Cheese for simply the best cheeseboard we have ever enjoyed! All the cheeses we ordered were delivered in perfect condition and were absolutely superb! With thanks and best regards, Edward".

"Would just like to say, Thank you. We received our cheese today as stated in our order confirmation. What a wonderful selection, we can't wait to get stuck in! We will definately order from you again, a wonderful service from start to finish. Once again, Thanks so much. Yours sincerely, Joanne & Gillon"

"Just to say a huge thank you for the cheese order I had from you in May. It was for my wife's 60th birthday party and every item we had (and there were quite a number!) was absolutely 1st class. I have today sent you another order for a dinner party in July and would not consider buying my cheese anywhere else from now on Kind regards, Tom"

"You have been so kind and thoughtful regarding my purchase. Your organization has also made it a most special surprise for my husband. He just received the basket and he is so thrilled - cheese, port and pate are his most favourite things. He will moving to the USA soon and he will really miss UK items such as your cheese. I am so thrilled by how much he is raving about your products - he said they are the best he has ever had. Thank you again for everything - you are wonderful and your customer service is beyond compare and your product best in world. Katherine"

"Dear Philip - Thank you very much for your efficient and 'human' service !; I was very impressed and the parcel arrived this morning as promised. This has by far been the best online shopping experience I have ever had. I shall do as you suggested and wrap up your well-packed box as my wife's present. Many many thanks, A very satisfied customer, Perry"

We don't only sell cheese! We also offer a selection of chutneys, pickles and biscuits to complement our cheeses. Pates, honeys, preserves and lots of non-food goodies at great prices complete our lineup.

We're listed as a food hero in Rick Stein's book.

Wedding and party cakes made with whole cheeses are now a growing part of our retail internet business.

Wholesale

Our buying power now enables us to wholesale products to other retailers at competitive prices. Our wholesale catalogue contains about 300 cheeses. Corporate gifts and gift cheeses are also a part of our wholesale business. Please note that from 2007 we are not taking on any further wholesale customers. Our success on the internet means something has to give, and it has to be be our lowest profit margin activity.

Import

We directly import French cheeses on a regular basis from the central Paris market, The Rungis.

About The Company

Purveyors of fine cheese to the gentry and the poverty stricken too! (Monty Python's Flying Circus 1972)

We now get over 6 million hits a year on this website thanks to all our customers and visitors.

Established 1982. Internet WebShop 2000. We own the following domain names:

www.houseofcheese.co.uk

www.houseofcheese.biz

www.houseofcheese.eu

This is a long established family business run by the partners, Philip & Jenny Grant. Running our sort of business requires a heavy commitment of working hours and a love of the product, which our customers take for granted but also obviously appreciate. Specialists like us are under pressure from the powerful large retailers but, because top quality food is made in relatively small quantities compared to factory-produced food, we feel there will always be a demand from discerning consumers who want 'real' food.

We work hard all year but even cheesemongers need a break, so we usually take a holiday in January/February during which time our shop is only open Fridays and Saturdays. We close our wholesale business down (and this internet site) as other retailers can usually order for three or four weeks during this traditionally quieter period.

Our main activities are retail, wholesale and import. We also smoke cheeses and have certain products made for us.

For a picture gallery of Tetbury, the market town in which we are based click here

The Duchess of Cornwall

A Royal Visit on 30th November 2006

Photograph © Michael Dunlea

on a lighter note ...

1982

Future heir to the throne, Prince William, was born. The Queen had a rude awakening when she found a man sitting on the end of her bed in Buckingham Palace... and it wasn't Prince Philip.

Channel 4 went on air for the first time and began broadcasting with Countdown. The government gave the go-ahead for satellite television.

Argentina invaded the Falklands and we went to war.

Princess Grace of Monaco died of the injuries she sustained in a car crash near Monte Carlo.

The Barbican Arts Centre in London was opened by the Queen and Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit Britain in 450 years.

Recession continued throughout most of the world, international trade declined, and unemployment in the United States reached 10.8 per cent in November - the highest since 1940.

The films ET, Tootsie and Blade Runner were all released and House of Cheese was opened in the pretty Cotswold Town of Tetbury.

March 1990

Supposing you bought a cheese shop in the Cotswolds, rather like the idyllic one featured in the television advertisement a few years ago - what would you expect to find? Maybe you would have a vision of a charming building of honey-coloured stone, its old-fashioned bow window looking onto a bustling street - and inside would be a cool room where traditional cheeses sat cheek by jowl.

When we came to look at the House of Cheese in 1990 we had very few pre-conceived ideas, simply because we really didn't know what to expect. Who would have realised that the building, which sat snugly in a row of other shops, was actually in desperate need of a new stone roof and damp-proofing? And that it was impossible to use the existing radiators as the basis of any form of central heating? And that the temperature of the shop, which faced south and was bathed in sun from early morning until after lunchtime, would swiftly rise, given half a chance, to over ninety degrees - enough to produce a fine Welsh rarebit in no time at all!

But we were fired with enthusiasm, not even dampened on moving day when, as we sawed our bed in half on the pavement outside the shop so that it could be carted up two flights of narrow stairs, the local policeman tried to move the removal van on to the end of the street, and a customer, seeing that the shop itself was closed while we tried to push our goods and chattels through the window, muttered darkly "I would have bought my cheese in Cirencester if I had known you were going to be shut!"

To comply with temperature regulations, one of the first jobs (while we were eating all our meals with chopsticks because we had no time to unpack our cutlery) was to have refrigeration and air conditioning installed in the shop. This involved removing the entire front of the shop and propping up the top two floors of the building while refrigerated counters were hauled into place. One bemused customer was heard to remark, staring at what had suddenly turned into a building site "I'm sure there used to be a cheese shop here!" There were also remarks from cheese buffs about how wrong it was to refrigerate cheese and that it should be stored at room temperature - conveniently forgetting that room temperature without the refrigeration was something like Cairo during the summer months!

A new ceiling had to be put in the shop, a new floor installed to make it level throughout and reduce the number of customers who fell over the minute they opened the door to walk into the shop, new shelving installed to replace the sagging shelves held up with sticks, and so on. And meanwhile we were learning as fast as we could about the business of buying and selling cheese!

Present Day

The shop is well established and more or less as we visualised it when we bought it. The latest challenge for us is to get to grips with the Internet - and finding a new bed to replace the one we sawed in half all those years ago! P.S. A new bed was delivered 1st April 2004 - about 14 years and one week after we sawed in half the old bed. It's very comfortable!

PRESS & MEDIA

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