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NEWS FROM HOUSE OF CHEESE
NEWS FROM HOUSE OF CHEESE
THE OLD SHOP, THE NEW SHOP, THE NEWER SHOP (April 2013)

Fortnum and Mason have been around since 1707. Harrods was established in 1824. Selfridges flagship store on Oxford Street, London, opened in 1909. House of Cheese began its life in Tetbury in 1982 (though readers of our news items will know that the actual building existed since the late 1600s and was a retail outlet for most of that time before its current role as a cheese shop). It's quite interesting to see businesses come and go in Tetbury. Quite a few have been around longer than we have. On the other hand, we have watched certain premises in our own street change hands several times in the last two or three decades. A former butcher's now sells clothes. A gents' outfitters has become a cafe. Antique clocks are sold from a premises that used to retail kitchenwares and gifts. People find it rather exciting when a new business opens in Tetbury. The shop, or restaurant, or whatever it is, suddenly becomes the latest place to be seen. All the local magazines feature the new business. "My dear, have you been to The New Shop/Restaurant? It has the most wonderful clothes/gifts/food etc." This is what we call 'the honeymoon period' of the business, when the novelty factor boosts takings and it's THE destination ... And then, of course, just like a marriage, reality (high rent and rates, low footfall, difficulty of finding staff, less than perfect reviews on TripAdvisor) sets in, and, as can sometimes happen in marriage, one is in for the Hard Slog ('le train train quotidien' as the French say ...) The winds of change blow down the street and The New Shop is supplanted by The Newer Shop. The New Shop, like Robert Browning's song thrush, can 'never recapture The first fine careless rapture' ... And so the lease is not renewed, or the business is sold. Suddenly The New Shop is just an empty window, and a 'Closed' sign on the door. Some of us may not be new, but we go on doing what we know we do well. And, on the high street and on the internet, we intend to go on doing it.

SPRING UPDATE (March 2013)

Time for an update after our annual break and refurbishments... Here in the Cotswolds, March came in neither like a lion nor a lamb, but as something very grey and extremely cold. Large drifts of snowdrops are still in bloom by the roadsides - they have normally faded by now - but Easter is already looming at the end of this month - and it's time to brush away the winter cobwebs and source some new products. We are now stocking a brand-new range of chutneys and pickles made by Stephanie Anderson near Bradford-on-Avon and called, appropriately "In a Pickle". Some of these products have quite a spicy "kick", and Stephanie will be adding more lines later in the spring. Details are on our "Chutneys, Pickles and Relish" web page.

Readers who have enjoyed Philip's description of our early years at 13 Church Street (on the "About Us" web page) may have wondered about the history of our shop prior to 1982, the year it became a specialist cheese retail business. We were wondering, too, because, after all, most of Church Street was established by the late sixteenth century. So, looking at the property deeds, which we obtained this week, and doing some online research, we discovered the following: that from the late 1870s the shop was run as a boot and shoe making business by Titus and Emily Riddick, who had two sons. The elder, Seymour, went to Nova Scotia in 1908 and was never seen again! The younger son, Reginald, listed as a shoemaker in 1914, was set to inherit the business, as was his own son born in 1916. However, Reginald was killed fighting in eastern France in 1918, and his only child died shortly after birth. The business was then taken over in 1929, on the death of Titus, by Reginald's widow, Ellen, who owned it until 1965 (she did re-marry in 1949). After Ellen Johns (formerly Riddick) sold the business, it passed through several hands - and was at different times a sweet shop and a vegetable shop - until we purchased it in 1990 for rather more than the £1,450 for which it was sold in 1965!

LOWER DELIVERY CHARGE (January 2013)

We've always subsidised our next-day delivery costs but we are now reducing these further to £4.95 for most postcodes. Happy New Year.

SIGNING OFF NOW TO PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS ... (November 2012)

We probably won't have time for a December newsletter, so best wishes to all our customers and readers for a happy Christmas and a good 2013. We were cheered by a message which was sent with one of our internet orders recently. Often, customers sending a gift like to include a card with their order, and sometimes the message is quite flippant, or even a bit rude. But we liked this one, because the senders, quite simply, said to the recipient: "We love you utterly." How heartwarming!

SMALL RETAILING IS NOT JUST ABOUT PROFIT (November 2012)

Regular customers will know that, apart from our webshop, we also have a real shop situated on Church Street, Tetbury, in Gloucestershire. One of the residents of this street was a gentleman in his early eighties. I'll call him John (because it was, in fact, his name, though only his middle name). John had done all sorts of things in his life - served in the army, married (more than once), been managing director of a company, worked in insurance, and lived in Hong Kong, South Africa, and the United States. John still liked to travel a few times a year, but what he did on most days was to walk around Tetbury (several times) and talk to everyone he met: retailers, visitors, and various local 'characters'. Everyone knew John. Most people had at least one amusing story to tell about John because he was also a 'character': intelligent, forthright, exasperating, and sometimes downright cantankerous. In heavy rain he would appear outside our shop, raise his arms to the heavens, and say: 'What weather, my dears!' About four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon: 'Anything doing, dears?' 'It's been really busy, John.' 'Splendid! What fun! What fun!' John spent very little, if anything, in most of the local shops. He was a pensioner on a limited budget and he saved his money for the wine that he bought on his trips to France when he visited the Somme every year to remember the appalling slaughter there in June 1916. And for his visits to friends in Norway, and expeditions to Naples, Croatia, Lisbon, Washington and so on. John didn't 'do' the internet. So our local travel agent and other friends helped him to book his trips, and we would print him out lists of places to visit. Sometimes, between trips abroad, Philip would take him out for a drive and a cup of coffee. I would discuss battlefield sites in Flanders and the heroism of the French at Verdun with him. Once, he went to visit my great-uncle's grave just outside Ypres. Then, this summer, John was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He insisted on making two last trips but, when we collected him from the second of these trips, we were shocked by the change in him. Exactly a month after that day, he died. He spent the last fortnight of his life in a hospital in Cirencester, about twenty minutes' drive away. We visited him several times, and so did almost everyone in Church Street, and elsewhere in Tetbury. Restaurant owners, an estate agent, the window cleaner, the bookseller, other retailers - the list was endless. It was amazing the number of people whose lives he had touched. When he died, the florist and the travel agent were with him. Just like John, who didn't 'do' the internet, we don't 'do' social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But, in our way, we 'do' a kind of social work, by providing a network for the elderly and those who may not have much going on in their lives apart from their daily walk up the street. It's not always about ringing up sales at the till - sometimes it's about checking on someone you haven't seen for a day or two, or taking five minutes to cheer somebody up. A few weeks before John died he was anxious to arrange a wake after his death 'for all those people in Tetbury who have been so very kind to me Philip'. You see, Tetbury and its shopkeepers had become a sort of family to John, even though he had his own small real family who were also with him shortly before his death. Jenny.
JB Pic

John 2011

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS ... (October 2012)

Yes, it certainly is! There are now three Christmas selections on our Cheese Selections web page, and the first festive orders have already been placed by customers - so please don't leave placing yours until 23rd December, because by then it will be too late ... (We were rather surprised to receive our first Easter catalogue from a supplier on Monday, but some wholesalers work a long way ahead). Finally, finally, our stoneware arrived - not on a slow boat from China, but on a very, very slow boat from India. It has been produced in Agra, famous for the marble from which the Taj Mahal was built. We have some beautiful trays and platters (some with handles and some without) in strikingly veined marble in shades of cream and brown. These items are so attractive and unusual that they are already attracting many compliments in the shop. There are also platters in marbled grey stone and in black granite. A new wide olive board has joined our range of other boards, and we are expecting a further delivery of olive wood carvers to supplement our dwindling supplies of this particular item. Carvers have sold extremely well for us as customers realise that the flat side can be used for chopping or as a cheese board. Other good news - we had an inspection from our Environmental Health Officer recently which resulted us being awarded a top score of 5 for hygiene.

We overheard some visitors outside the shop last week complaining that Tetbury only had small shops and there was no equivalent of Westfield or Bluewater in the town. That's not what the Cotswolds are about. Small market towns; villages; individual, quirky, independent shops - yes. Huge retail malls - not yet, thank goodness!

NEW AMORE RANGE OF CHEESE KNIVES IN STOCK (September 2012)

At long last, our new range of cheese knives has arrived - eight handle designs, two blade designs - we are thrilled with them. The knives with heart cutouts in the blades are all unique to us, as is the "Classic" set (one of Jenny's favourites). These new products can all be found on the "Cheese Knives" web page. We now have large stocks of all our South African designer knives, too. It's now halfway through September, which means that the season for Vacherin du Mont d'Or cheeses has begun. For those unfamiliar with this exquisite Alpine cheese (available in 500g boxes), now is the time to try it. You will find it on our "Soft Cheeses" web page. It can be eaten either at room temperature with walnuts and grapes, or baked in its box in the oven to produce a kind of fondue, which is excellent with crusty bread or tiny new potatoes. Garlic and wine can be added before cooking. Talking of baked cheese, several crates of Camembert bakers arrived recently to ensure that we have plenty of stock for Christmas gifts. The "Maison de Picardie" baker, with its raised basket-weave design, is particularly attractive. A baker, together with a top-quality Normandy Camembert, makes an ideal present for under £20.

Recent customer comments in the shop: "Oh - we thought the Stilton would taste like Cheddar ..." (from an American customer);

"What do you mean when you say that the cheese has a moist texture?"

"You've made our day!" (from customers who bought a range of our wooden boards). This last comment made our day, too!

A BUSY YEAR SO FAR (August 2012)

This year has been an exceptionally busy one for purchases of new and exciting stock. Purchasing can often be much more work than selling, especially when ordering unique products. Hundreds of olive boards have now arrived from Tunisia, and we have yet another new size due to reach us some time in September. They are incredibly popular and ideal for serving cheeses, cold meats, bread and olives, etc. As olive is one of the world's hardest woods, they are very hard-wearing and make excellent chopping boards. We have some huge carving boards at £55 which are twice the size of those which some other retailers are selling at £40, together with stunning carved baskets and bowls. Our giant pestles and mortars make fabulous gifts - speaking of which, Christmas shopping began in our Tetbury shop about a month ago when many people realised that this year's summer would be, at best, intermittent, and decided to concentrate on purchasing Christmas gifts! A new range of South African oak boards is also now available. Check out this beautiful range of items on our "Cheeseboards, platters and plates" web page. We have now taught ourselves the art of displaying multiple photos of products and will extend this to more lines as time permits, but we feel that these pictures really show the quality of the boards. The oak wine barrel tops are proving particularly good sellers with three purchased in as many days last week! We shall shortly be extending our range of South African designer knives - high-quality items which perfectly complement the lovely wooden boards. Camembert bakers are still immensely popular; we now have four different designs, all of which are selling steadily. And it's good to know that customers continue to enjoy our cheese! Our site now has a "Customer feedback" page with a selection of positive comments from some satisfied connaisseurs.

NEW LINES ON THE WAY (May 2012)

We've diversified quite widely from our original cheese range (many of our cheeses are still at 2006 prices, by the way) by selling cheese accessories, whether they be cheese knives or cheese boards. We sold several tons of boards last year and have plans to expand our ranges. Currently on order are several thousand cheese knives made in Thailand (twenty one new designs, some designed by us), a range of granite and marble boards from Agra, India (twenty five designs in this range), lots of olivewood boards from Tunisia, including some new lines and, direct import of many new types of oak boards from the Cape in South Africa. All should be online by the end of August. We support British suppliers and makers too.

ALL DECEMBER ORDERS DESPATCHED ON DATES PROMISED (December 20th 2011)

ANNIVERSARY 2012 (November 2011)

Next year will be the 30th anniversary of our business and we are holding a '20% off' sale in January. It's not that we have stock we need to move or that our sales this year have been poor. We think an anniversary gives us the opportunity to celebrate and we wanted to include customers in that celebration.

WEBSITE NOT WORKING (August 2011)

Our website was brought down by a DoS (Denial of Service) attack on Sat 27th and Sun 28th. A DoS attack happens when a website is bombarded by requests until it can't cope. The attack came from computers in Eastern Europe. The company who host our site worked over the holiday weekend at restoration and, hopefully, everything will be fine now. No security was breached, not that we hold any credit card information on our website nowadays. All that information is handled by a third-party processor (Sagepay). Apologies to anyone trying to order on those days.

NEW SELECTIONS (August 2011)

Now planning for Christmas, with some new selections, a hardback cheese book at half price and more cheese accessories.

DELIVERY (May 2011)

We are trialling a new courier company. Whilst no delivery company is perfect, early performance results are good.

WE HAVE RECEIVED OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS ORDER (March 2011)

OUR FIRST EVER SALE - ENDS 28TH FEBRUARY (February 2011)

10% to 20% off selected products. Conditions - goods must be delivered within three months of order date (which you select at checkout). Discount will not show at our checkout but we will deduct the discount before taking any payment.!!

TIME FOR A BREAK SOON (December 2010)

For those who don't know, we put our hearts and souls into our Christmas business each year and then take our annual holiday. We are having our real shop decorated inside this year and our business shoud be fully functioning again by late February 2011. We are open until New Year's Eve (about 3pm) but then only on Fridays and Saturdays in early January. Happy 2011.

CHRISTMAS 2010

... this photograph was taken just outside our shop about an hour after we despatched our last internet orders for 2010. What weather this December!

CHRISTMAS 2010
BAD WEATHER UPDATES (December 2010)

20th December - heavy snow today in the Cotswolds, but we have now despatched those orders for 20th and 21st. We hired a four-wheel-drive vehicle last week to help us cope. All deliveries are now despatched and, as we waved goodbye to them, we crossed our fingers and legs and sincerely hope that all of them will be delivered by Christmas in this atrocious weather. Parcelforce has the most staff of all the couriers and has employed extra staff to help. Please check your tracking number on their website.

19th December - All orders now cut. Packing until late in the evenings.

17th December - Parcelforce will be working and delivering all weekend from most depots.

16th December - Our orders for 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th have all left us as requested.

13th December - We are not accepting any further orders for Scottish Postcodes. Royal Mail still has a backlog in Scotland because of the bad weather. We will be despatching remaining Scottish orders on 16th or 17th December if you requested 20th or 21st despatch date. Parcelforce will be working all weekend and Royal Mail have employed another 3,000 staff (on top of the 20,000 temporary staff already employed) to make sure everything is delivered before Christmas.

9th December - Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness depots are finding difficulties delivering parcels. The Edinburgh area still has much ice.

7th December - Most deliveries are being made but there are areas in Scotland with heavy snow still. Everything is leaving us on time. For those who don't know, Coventry is the central hub for Parcelforce and is still snow clear.

4th December - Parcelforce are working Saturday and Sunday to catch up on postponed deliveries.

2nd December - Most of our deliveries are being made by Royal Mail. However, some areas have delays due to the snow. We have no problems here yet.

Most delayed orders are in non-heated articulated trailers or unheated depots, so any perishables will not suffer. Use your Parcelforce tracking number for the latest update if we have despatched or contact Parcelforce to see if you are able to collect from their depot.

PRE-CHRISTMAS UPDATE (late November 2010) - Well, this has been our busiest November ever and sales of non-cheese have exceeded those of cheese. We already have several hundred orders for December despatch dates when cheese sells like mad too. We always think of the internet a bit like fishing. Every time we download orders it's anyone's guess what we'll catch. This time of year there are shoals of orders; some tiddlers, some massive ones. Even after ten years of having a full e-commerce website it is still amazing that orders arrive from all over the globe and are funnelled into our little box called a computer. We get more visitors to our website each day than we could ever fit in our tiny real shop. We're ready for intense work now for the next three weeks and we've got some plastic antlers on our van, although a real stag ran in front of our van last week; just missed hurting it. Happy Christmas to all our customers, our friends, our competitors and our cheesemakers and their animals who make us some fabulous-tasting products.

IT PROBLEMS SORTED (September 2010) - We've had a few problems on our website, but all seems to be working fine now. Cause - bugs in a new shopping software version!

VACHERIN IS BACK IN STOCK (September 2010) - New season Vacherin du Mont d'Or arrives 14th September.

NEW CHECKOUT ON OUR WEBSITE (August 2010) - We've been quietly upgrading our software and making quite a few changes behind the scenes, especially to our checkout, which now has a despatch date-picker calendar, a better postcode lookup layout and a much more customer-friendly shipping band calculator.

NEW RANGE OF DESIGNER CHEESE UTENSILS NOW ARRIVED (May 2010) - It's a long time since we placed our first order for these superb sets - January 10th to be precise. It's also been another learning curve too; despite Philip having imported goods from China when he worked in the music business and Jenny having studied at Shanghai university before she took her Chinese/French degree, China has changed dramatically in the last two decades. It's been a surprising venture too, being able to track the ship our goods came on, around the world, via the internet on a sort of satnav ship website. Although these sets are made in China, where most goods are made nowadays, they are truly designer-led, just like the world-class buildings used in the China Olympics. Treat yourself, or someone else, to a lovely cheese knife/utensil set.

POSTAGE OFFER (March 2010) - We have reduced our already subsidised postage charge of £7.95 to £4.95 for orders placed and despatched in March 2010. This does not include orders already placed before 5th March 2010. This is an experiment for us to find out how sales will be stimulated by this cheaper postage charge.

ALL HANDS TO THE PUMP (December 2009) - 24 days to Christmas and this is our busiest month. Don't linger in the shop, we might rope you in for packing! Christmas greetings to all our customers and friends.

CHEESE & WHITE WINE (October 2009) - A new report suggests that white wine, unlike red wine, is bad for your teeth due to the more acidic properties of white wine. However, this can be prevented by eating cheese which counters the acidity. So eat lots of cheese with your wine!

VACHERIN DU MONT D'OR NOW IN STOCK (October 2009)

KEITH FLOYD (September 2009) - We used to supply over fifty retail shops before we got so busy with the internet and it was useful just to see how other shops operated. We saw that some were hopeless at ordering enough of the right stock, some were useless at managing their accounts but, the most disturbing aspect in some shops was the total lack of enthusiasm for the product. It's something we probably can't express on our website very well, but we are passionate about the goods we sell. Like so many, we were sad to hear that Keith Floyd had died. We watched the television programme about him the night before we heard he had died and it was sad to see he wasn't well. Nevertheless, the spark was still there and he loved his food, his alcohol and he still very much loved life. It's the passion for these things which has made some chef presenters worth watching. If our cheeses surprise you with their quality and taste, then the enthusiasm and care the maker takes has all been worthwhile.

AUTUMN 2009AUTUMN 2009

... well, that's the end of summer this year. For us in the Cotswolds it wasn't very settled weather, but we know the South East has had a good summer.

Believe it or not, it's time for us to plan for Christmas. The pickled walnuts and Turkish Delight arrived today and we have started placing some other Christmas orders! We also have cheese 'cake' orders for 2010. Enjoy the autumn.

OUR RANGE OF CHEESE ACCESSORIES GROWS (August 2009) - We're increasing our range of non-food goods. No other cheesemonger stocks more of these types of merchandise. With an eye to value and style we have goods from the Mediterranean, Franschhoek in South Africa, India, the Far East and, of course, many lines made or distributed by small family firms in the UK. Great for gifts.

WINE AND CHEESE TASTING AT ARKELL'S BREWERY (June 2009) - The holy trinity of food - wine, cheese & bread. Our annual trip to Arkell's Brewery where we provide the food to go with the hundred wines their clients taste at this private function. Click here to watch (don't forget to click on the youtube HD button if you want to see it in high definition, subject to your computer speed and internet connection).

... ON THE STREET WHERE WE LIVE (May 2009) - Our photographic tribute to Tetbury, the town in which we are based and where we live. Click here to watch the high definition widescreen version (don't forget to click on the youtube HD button) or Click here to watch the standard version (click on the youtube high quality HQ button if you have a fast enough internet connection).

DESPATCH COSTS (March 2009) The cost of our next-day delivery charges has increased by almost 5%, but we have decided to absorb that increase for the time being. We already subsidise our despatch charges by several thousand pounds a year - customers are often unaware of just how expensive a reliable next-day service costs.

NEW RANGE OF HAMPERS (February 2009)

A CLIP OF JENNY TALKING ABOUT OUR BUSINESS (February 2009)

Click here to watch.

RECORD ORDERS ON THE NET (December 2008) - Last year the most number of hits in one day was about 40,000 and that was a record for us then. On 8th of December 2008 we had 64,177 hits on that day alone - can we beat that next year?

OUR PACKING ELVES ...OUR PACKING ELVES ...

... work long into the night carefully packing your orders and they wish you a Merry Christmas. Say 'Cheese'!

ALL HANDS TO THE PUMP (December 2008) - Our elves are packing orders now and this is the last news before Christmas, and really the last point we are sane until the 25th! Thank you to the customers who have e-mailed and asked how we were coping with the credit crunch. We're fine thanks and our internet business seems crunch-free. Thanks for all your business - we do our very best to make everyone else's Christmas by working extraordinary hours and then have our own Christmas in January.

NEW CHECKOUT TWEAKS (November 2008) - Regular customers may notice a slightly different checkout procedure. We have done some work with our shipping calculator so that orders to postcodes carrying a postal surcharge are automatically adjusted before the checkout and we are also using a third party secure card processor called Protx.

2008 VACHERIN NOW IN STOCK (September 2008)

NEW RANGE OF PICKLES & CHUTNEYS (September 2008) - Award-winning Mrs Massey makes pickles, chutneys and relishes for Fortnums and Mason. Being based near us in Gloucestershire, we tried her Chow Chow Picalilli which was excellent, as are the six other products of hers we are stocking.

WEDDING COMPANY COLLAPSE AND CREDIT CARD SECURITY (August 2008) - We are different to most of the other cheese wedding cake suppliers in that we just charge a £25 deposit and do not take the payment balance until we pack your order, one or two days before despatching. Last year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of our business so we have survived wars and recessions before.

The makers of the software we use (Actinic) have never experienced credit card fraud with their software. The simple reason is that we do not hold a database of credit card details online so no one can hack into those details and steal them.

NEW CHEESE SELECTIONS (July 2008) ... including a new Spicy and Strong selection.

CAMILLA BARRED FROM PRINCE OF WALES'S HIGHGROVE SHOP IN TETBURY (May 2008) - Royal watchers may be surprised to learn that earlier this week Camilla was barred from the Prince of Wales's new Highgrove shop, which opened in Tetbury in March of this year. All was explained, however, when it transpired that Camilla had fallen foul of the shop's regulations which bar access to the shop to all dogs except Guide Dogs for the Blind and Hearing Dogs. This particular Camilla was an adorable thirteen week old - appropriately enough - Cavalier King Charles spaniel, who was visiting Tetbury for the day with her owners!

NEW MILESTONE (May 2008) - We've just gone over the seven million hits a year mark. A hit is not a visit and a visit is not a sale, but the more hits the more sales. We thought this year would slow down with the economy cooling. Certainly no slowing on our internet business!

E-MAIL PROBLEMS SOLVED - (March 2008) - We've had problems with our houseofcheese e-mails, in that we havn't been able to send using those addresses. All e-mails came into us fine though. It was an SMTP BT Yahoo problem which, it appears, affected many on the net over Easter. BT customer service was useless in Bombay, in fact if our customer service was as bad, we would have gone bust long ago. If this problem is affecting you please e-mail us for help with the fix. We carried out our first bulk e-mail offer to previous customers just before Easter and we thought we may have been classed as a 'spammer'. If you are visiting Tetbury, it is extremely busy at the moment as the Prince of Wales has now opened his Highgrove shop and it is attracting lots of customers and gawpers!

CHEESES BACK IN STOCK - Ashmore - a very good aged firm cheese. Gourgandine à la Violette is also now available - a very different seasonal cheese. Both cheeses are in our 'Other Firm Cheeses' section (March 2008)

2008 UPDATE (February 2008) - Another year begins after our annual holiday and we really needed a holiday this year after our busiest year ever. We've decided that after almost two decades of working six (and sometimes seven) days a week we will close our Tetbury shop on Mondays, at least for most of the year; we will probably open Mondays in the autumn and December of course. To be able to actually have the Monday off this means we will not despatch internet orders on a Monday; we will send out orders on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays only. We've noticed some other internet businesses do the same and we hope it is not too much of an inconvenience. So today is one of those Mondays off - but I'm typing this and Jenny is throwing out old files and bagging paperwork to be shredded!

THE SUNDAY TIMES' GUIDE TO FOOD ONLINE FOR CHRISTMAS (November 2007)

Useful links for Christmas buying. Click here to read the article.

COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS (November 2007) - Our Christmas planning begins early and our stocks of non-food cheese accessories have now soared. Just when we thought we had enough stock for Christmas, publicity of various sorts meant we have had to re-order many lines already as they have been flying out of our shop. We probably now have the largest range of cheese accessories in the UK. We were featured in the Mail on Sunday in their colour magazine at the end of October and have also been listed in the Guardian Food Directory which is published early in November each year. In addition, a digital television company wanted to make a multi-language, high definition eight minute article for use around the world about our wedding and party cakes. We had to decline that offer until next year. The media has been very kind to us this year. Christmas orders are arriving daily and it can be quite scary to think of our workload in December. Many thanks to all our growing number of regular customers and for their kind comments about our products and service.

POSTAL STRIKES (October 2007) - We are unaffected by the postal strikes in that we are upgrading every delivery to Royal Mail Parcelforce, who themselves are unaffected. However, as Parcelforce is more expensive for us (but not for you) we currently have a £25 minimum order value on our webshop (excluding VAT and the delivery charge). We will revert to 'no minimum order' when the strikes, official and unofficial, are finished and backlogs are cleared.

NEW FIXED PRICE SELECTIONS (October 2007) - See our Cheese Selections section for:

Christmas Selection, Autumn Cheese Selection, The Cheese Survival Kit, Thank You Selection, The Gentleman's Selection, The Gentleman's Alternative Selection, The Lady's Selection, The Gourmet Basket, The Soft Mountain Cheese Basket and Summer Picnic or Dinner Party Cheese Selection. We'll try to add more Christmas Selections, time permitting.

NEW SEASON VACHERIN (September 2007) - Vacherin du Mont d'Or small 500g, now in stock.

NEW CHEESE SELECTIONS (September 2007) - In addition to an Autumn Cheese Selection we have added two new selections: The Gentleman's Selection and The Lady's Selection. This year our Father's Day Selection was so popular, it has continually been ordered throughout the summer as a gentleman's gift. We thought it was time we put a permanent selection together of everything men tend to like in their cheeseboards. Not forgetting the ladies, we also used our experience of the sort of cheeses which particularly appeal to them. It tends to be certain strong firm and blue cheeses for the men and usually soft, often really rich cheeses for the women. Enjoy!

NEW WEBSITE MAKEOVER (August 2007) - Welcome to our new website. All the contents of our old website are still on this new website, plus a few new features. If you can't find a section just e-mail us. For our regular visitors, it's a bit like going around a familiar store to find everything has moved!

VISITING THE COTSWOLDS? (July 2007) - If you had planned a holiday break in the Cotswolds please don't cancel because of the floods. Although there is widespread flooding in Gloucestershire, you can still get around easily and enjoy this wonderful area. Many businesses are not as lucky as us and don't have a large internet business, so they really need the foot visitors on our streets in these small towns and villages. For many, the summer business is what keeps them going through the winter. Please help them by coming to the Cotswolds.

PRICE TURBULENCE (July 2007) - We had a rather depressing letter from one of our large suppliers of cheese. After years of stable prices (in fact, we have hardly increased our prices over the last three years) we may well see large rises during the next few months. There is a shortage of milk, a new demand for dried milk from the Chinese, a milk price increase, and several other factors which will affect the price of cheese, not just in Britain, but also in Europe and even beyond. Not just cheese prices will be affected, but also other food products. We will keep our prices as low as we can (we are very competitively priced compared to other cheese retailers and delicatessens) but we can already see some increases ahead and the bad weather this summer will only pile on more price pressure.

20072007

TETBURY (20th July 2007) - the day it rained over four inches in ten hours. That's normally two months' summer rainfall.

An outdoor Jools Holland concert at nearby Westonbirt was cancelled because water was over the bonnets of cars. The Cirencester and Malmesbury roads were closed. The flood plains in Tetbury were so full you could have moored a boat there!

Tetbury is otherwise unaffected now. All roads opened on the 21st and we are operating as normal with electricity and tap water. Other parts of our county are not so lucky.

NEW WEDDING & PARTY CAKES (July 2007) - More new cakes added, including ones which come with decorations. Even if none of the cakes is the right size for you, we are trying to show the many ways you can decorate any cake. New toppers and pillars for sale too in our shop/cheese wedding cakes section.

NEW WEBSITE (June 2007) - We are currently in the process of extending, refreshing and updating our website. We have now gone over the six million hits a year mark and we really need to upgrade our software which will allow us to perform more functions, such as a log-in for regular customers, a new product reminder, and various other improvements. We have always used Actinic software and will continue to do so. Just this week we have been awarded a £500 grant towards the cost of our web makeover - the first grant this business has ever had (apart from the fact that the owners surname is Grant)!

DARFUR APPEAL (June 2007) - For an unusual gift for less than £20, or to just help the people of this war-torn country, you can donate and order hygienic cheese-making equipment which will allow farmers in Darfur, Western Sudan to make cheese from their goat's milk. This will add value to the milk and allow them to earn a reliable income for their families. Click here to go to the World Vision charity website. You can even buy a cow for a family in Sri Lanka on their webshop!

A PLACE IN THE RAIN (June 2007) - Look out for our shop on Channel 4's 'A Place in the Sun' due to be broadcast early in 2008. Interior and exterior filming, with the show's presenter Jonnie Irwin and two participants from Marlborough, took place at the end of May between torrential downpours!

SAY CHEEESE (June 2007) - Buy him a Father's Day selection - will usually make an old man really happy! See our cheese selections section of our webshop.

OUR YOUTUBE DEBUT (May 2007) - Have a look at our brief wedding and party cake clip. View the clip here

WEDDING AND PARTY CAKE STAND HIRE (April 2007) - New cake stand hire. Gorgeous silver plated stands to show off that cheese wedding cake or party cake. See our shop/cheese wedding cakes section.

TOP UK CHEESE RETAILER RANKING (April 2007) - A Google UK search for 'cheese' brings us up in third place. However, we are the top ranked cheese retailer in the UK as the top listing is the British Cheese Board (facts about cheese) and the second rating is a French cheese information site with a link to us as a stockist. Our hits are currently running at 5.75 million a year. The internet has been very kind to our business, although we do still work eighty hours a week, six days a week (more in December). Rankings change constantly but it's nice to be a big cheese for a time!

NEW FIXED PRICE SELECTION WITH FREEBIES! (April 2007) Spring Picnic or Dinner Party Selection - will feed twelve people on one occasion or six people twice. Free gifts in our 25th year. See our shop/cheese selections section.

POSTAGE INCREASE & PACKAGING UPDATE (April 2007) - Our subsidised postage is now £7.50 per order - still the cheapest on the cheese net! Royal Mail Special Delivery postage has just gone up by 35p (up to 2kg), whilst our postage has just increased by 20p. We subsidise large orders over 2kg by quite a lot nowadays. Additionally, we don't charge for any packaging which can be over £2 per order. Most of the packaging materials we use are biodegradeable and most of our packaging 'chips' are now made from vegetable starch. In warm weather we use frozen ice packs which can also be re-used.

NEW PRODUCTS (March 2007) - New cheeseboards, knives, knife sets, biscuits, chutneys and seasonal cheeses.

OUR HOLIDAYS ARE LONG GONE UNTIL 2008 (March 2007) - After our usual annual Winter holiday it's back to the grind for another eleven months. Wedding cake orders are now coming thick and fast for the Spring and even one for Christmas 2007 (just when we thought we could put Christmas behind us!) This is the time of year we review our non-cheese stock and look around for more lines. We're very pleased to have sold so many non-cheese items as they expand our webshop and our turnover. This year is the 25th anniversary of our business, so we are running lots of special offers throughout the year.

MORE BUSINESS THAN WE COULD HANDLE! (January 2007) - Our Christmas business grows each year as regular Christmas customers are joined by ones who used us last year and were obviously pleased with our products and services (we know this from your kind e-mails). We still can't cope with all the orders we could take, so we closed our webshop on 12th December but we processed more orders in December than any other previous Christmas. For 2007 we may run a smaller selection of products during December as we can take more orders for whole items - it's the cutting of pieces which really takes the time! So make sure to place your order by November at the latest before our webshop changes.

The Duchess of CornwallThe Duchess of Cornwall

A Royal Visit on 30th November 2006

Royal Visit 30th November 2006 - The Duchess of Cornwall - Photograph © Michael DunleaRoyal Visit 30th November 2006 - The Duchess of Cornwall - Photograph © Michael Dunlea

WHERE DID 2006 GO? (November 2006) - Our really busy period is starting now, although we've been busy all year. This is probably the last news item until 2007. Many thanks to all our regular Christmas customers who increase in number each year. Please be patient with the delivery companies; our Parcelforce driver works really hard and the number of orders in December increases enormously.

ANOTHER MILESTONE (October 2006) - Over five million hits a year now on our website.

NEW PRODUCTS (October 2006) - New Cheese Christmas Cakes. See the 'Just for Christmas' section of our website.

VACHERIN DU MONT D'OR (September 2006) - New season Vacherin arrives with us on 11th September. Fantastic Autumn/Winter cheese from the French Alps.

NEW PRODUCTS (August 2006) - We've had a really busy Summer. Usually our Summers are a little quieter due to holidays and hot weather, but not this year. Lots of non-cheese new products in our webshop - many more cheese accessories, such as cheese knives, planes, graters, parmesan pots etc. Swiss chocolate disks for Girolles too. We also have created a new section 'Just for Christmas' filled with specially sourced, great tasting products you can receive with your last minute Christmas orders, but you can forward order them now for Christmas. Look out for new Autumn and Winter cheeses soon!

FIRST CHRISTMAS ORDER RECEIVED 12TH JULY (July 2006) - Ordered from Saudi Arabia for delivery to Aberdeen.

WEDDING CAKES GALORE (June 2006) - Our wedding cake business is booming, so much so that we need you to give us at least a month's notice, preferably longer. We will take orders with less notice if we can, but it takes us time to get so much stock, in exactly the right condition, at the right time for your wedding. We always pride ourselves on only supplying great cheese, otherwise our wedding business wouldn't last. What you don't see is the cheese we send back that's not up to our standards!

IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY! (May 2006) - Whilst looking at a competitor's website we were surprised to see one of our own large photographs used as the main picture on their front page. Please be aware that infringment of Copyright is something we take seriously. It takes a great deal of time and effort to photograph our products. Before we developed this cheese business we were involved in Copyright infringment enforcement for an international publisher.

EAU DE STILTON (May 2006) - The makers of the famously pungent Stilton blue cheese have launched their own perfume and they have approached Cat Deeley to be the face of Eau de Stilton. It claims to "recreate the earthy and fruity aroma" of the cheese "in an eminently wearable perfume". The perfume, blended by a Manchester-based aromatics company, features a "symphony of natural base notes including yarrow, angelica seed, clary sage and valerian. We've ordered a sample and will let you know if we will be stocking it!

WEBSITE HITS (May 2006) - A new milestone. Over four million hits a year on our website.

POSTCODE LOOKUP ADDED (April 2006) - Postcode lookup added to our invoice address and delivery address sections. Make sure you have the correct postcode as most couriers work almost exclusively with postcodes as their main identifier.

NEW ADDITIONAL URL (April 2006) - We also have www.houseofcheese.eu as one of our domains.

POSTAGE INCREASE (April 2006) - A 7% increase from Royal Mail means we have to increase our next-day postage charge to £7.30 which is still subsidised and remains cheaper than our competitors.

WHERE'S MY INVOICE? (March 2006) - This year we have decided to exclude any printed invoices in parcels. We e-mail every customer with invoice details and feel an enclosed invoice unnecessary and a security risk in the unlikely event that your parcel gets lost. We can re e-mail an invoice if, for any reason, you didn't receive our original e-mail.

POST CHRISTMAS 2005 (December 2005) - We despatched every order and, more importantly, every line of every order, on the date promised. We almost killed ourselves this year but it was really great to have so much business and so many nice e-mails once everyone had started receiving their orders. We hardly had a minute to ourselves in December until Christmas day and we were up at 3am on many different days. Royal Mail Parcelforce performed much better this year, although the service at Christmas is never perfect. Our Stilton was outstanding quality - the best we've seen for a few years.

A RECORD FOR US (November 2005) - We were in The Times newspaper on Saturday and yesterday (27th November) we had 43,433 hits on our website. Scary! We placed an order today at the Paris market and they faxed us back 'do you really want to order these huge quantities - please confirm'!

BETTER QUALITY PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHS (November 2005) - We are busy improving the quality of our photographs. Remember many of our pictures were from a time when broadband wasn't known but now speeds improve monthly and it isn't so slow to view larger images.

FAST WEBSITE (November 2005) - Seems to have been a routing problem - 1st November.

SLOW WEBSITE (October 2005) - Our website is running a little slow at the moment. Our software engineers/hosting company are carrying out checks - 25th October.

RICK STEIN / HENRIETTA GREEN (October 2005) - Listed again in the new Food Heroes book by Rick Stein and on his internet site. Long standing listing in Henrietta Green's Food Guide and internet site.

VACHERIN IN STOCK (September 2005) - Vacherin in stock 20th September. A fantastic seasonal soft cheese which we will now stock until the new year.

NEW FOIE GRAS (September 2005) - Foie Gras in jars and tins.

NEW ADDITIONAL URL (September 2005) - We also have www.houseofcheese.biz as one of our websites.

CHRISTMAS ORDERS (August 2005) - Received our first Christmas orders. We'll aim to get our first one in July next year and we're thinking of offering a prize!

SCOTTISH SUNDAY POST (August 2005) - Some of you may have seen our mention in this newspaper of our cheese wedding cakes. We do of course send cheeses to Scotland. For non-mainland Scotland please e-mail us first.

NEW PRODUCTS (July 2005) - New silver plated cheese sets and - great for gifts. Also new bamboo wood cheeseboards/chopping boards in stylish two tone effect and great value. See our shop section 'Cheese Utensils'.

SUNDAY TIMES (June 2005) - Watch out for us in the 'Doors' section of The Sunday Times and don't forget it's Father's Day on Sunday 19th June. However, if you forget you can always send a belated Father's Day gift the week after!

NEW PATES (May 2005) - We have extended our range to include many new fish pates (suitable for vegetarians) which are really excellent and an ostrich pate, and a lamb pate.

SITE FUNCTIONING FINE (24th April 2005) - We have received no e-mails concerning any problems with our website. Internet orders continue to arrive daily.

NEW WEBSITE (20th April 2005) - Our original website of 1999/2000 has served us well but there were some navigation issues and java problems. Our new site has easier navigation and a secure server area dispenses with the need for javascript. We have deliberately kept our site quite simple and without large pictures. Watch out for regular news updates. We have tested our website extensively, but please e-mail if you experience any problems with it.

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