Cheese-Making in Glamorgan

In pre-industrial Glamorgan most of the inhabitants were involved in agriculture, earning their living either by pastoral or arable farming or were occupied in related crafts and skills. The upland regions, known as ‘Y Blaenau’, owing to geographic conditions concentrated on the breeding of cattle, horses, sheep and goats and produced butter, cheese and wool. The low-lying regions of the Vale, ‘Y Fro’, with its richer, more fertile soil enabled the farmers to practise ‘mixed husbandry’ i.e. the growing of crops as well as stock rearing and dairy farming.The production of butter and cheese played a key role in the economy of both regions well into the nineteenth century, and continued to be prominent in the upland regions until the early decades of the twentieth century. Primarily, butter and cheese were produced for home consumption but, as extant documents prove, surplus stock was sold to provide income. Indeed, these records provide a key to identifying the value of dairy products to the farmers and to proving their involvement with dairying skills

Agricultural economics · Agricultural science · Agriculture · Animal husbandry · Arable land · Archaeology · Biology · Consumption (sociology · Dairy farming · Economics · Extant taxon · Geography · Mixed farming · Social science · Sociology · Stock (firearms · Historical Studies of British Isles