Ford Farm Cheesemakers in Litton Cheney in Dorset is celebrating a raft of awards this year for its cheese-making prowess.

In two of the major cheese competitions, the British Cheese Awards and the International Cheese Awards in Nantwich, the farm achieved a total of 15 medals, including six golds, four silvers, three bronzes, a very highly commended and a trophy for packaging.

At the recently re-launched Yeovil Show, which returned to the Yeovil showground in July after an absence of nearly fifty years, Ford Farm placed six times in the cheese competition, which attracted nearly 50 entries from cheddar makers across the south west.

The art of spectacular layered cheese cake creations is also one of the farm's skills and a recent initiative, in conjunction with The Thorner's School in Litton Cheney, to create a cake for the Queen in her 90th year, achieved highly commended in a competition which attracted 98 entries from across the country.

The photographs of the cake, which comprised layers of Ford Farm cheese varieties as well as a fruit cake baked and iced by year five students from the Thorner's School, will form part of a collage presented to the Queen to commemorate the occasion.

The organisers of the initiative, Love British Food, said: "We cannot emphasise enough how difficult it was to choose a winner from the 98 entries we had in the end and being highly commended is a huge achievement in itself, very, very, well done. We really loved your entry."