Agricultural History Review, Volume 72 Part 1 (2024), pp. 1–25

Cheese was an important foodstuff in late medieval England but our knowledge of several aspects of its manufacture is thin. This paper attempts a fuller understanding of the processes of cheese-making and their outcomes, with particular reference to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The sources used are not new but their potential has yet to be fully explored. Five themes are addressed, from the length of the cheese-making season to the sizes of cheese made. One important new contribution concerns the translation of the Latin words pressura and presura and whether they refer to cheese pressing as hitherto assumed.