Longley Farm celebrates 60 years with awards to long-serving staff

Dec 10 2009 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A COMPANY renowned for its cream and cottage cheese is celebrating 60 years – with a tribute to its long-serving employees.

When brothers Edgar and Joseph Dickinson founded Longley Farm on the hills above Holmfirth, they could never have imagined how big their dairy would grow.

The brothers began with a herd of just 10 Jersey cows.

Sixty years on – with more Jerseys and milk from an additional 45 other regional farmers – Longley Farm processes 40m litres of milk a year.

The company is renowned for its traditional Jersey cream, yoghurts, soft cheeses, curd cheese, cottage cheese, fromage frais, crème fraîche and butter.

As the company gears up to celebrate its diamond jubilee, no fewer than 18 members of staff will be presented with long service awards after working there for 25 years or more.

Jimmy Dickinson, son of Joseph, said: “This is a family business in every sense. It is not unusual for people to come and work here, then stay for 20 years or more. It’s their knowledge and expertise which make our products so unique, and loved by customers at home and abroad.”

There are whole dynasties at Longley. For instance, the Heppenstalls. Winnie Heppenstall joined 36 years ago to be followed by husband Roy, sister Hilda, daughter Dianne and several other relatives.

Dianne works there to this day, and is now in charge of health and safety.

Then there’s Yorkshire’s “cottage cheese king” himself – George Ashton. In 34 years at Longley Farm, he’s made more than 340m pots of cottage cheese.