AN award-winning pottery and damson cheese maker is all smiles again thanks to help from Business Link York and North Yorkshire.

The Garden House and Garden House Pottery, of Reeth, the UK's only commercial producer of damson cheese, was badly affected by the restrictions imposed by last year's foot-and-mouth crisis last year, but it has been bolstered by a Government-funded Rural Recovery Grant, secured with guidance from Business Link, and is now targeting new markets.

The disease crisis prompted the business to review its business plan, and as a result of this review, next week it will launch the www.gardenhousepottery.co.uk website, which it hopes will be accompanied by a mail order catalogue by the end of the year.

The business was founded by husband and wife Jane and Raymond Davies in 1981.

In 1996, they began producing damson cheese using homegrown damsons presented in handmade pots.

Mrs Davies said: "We recognized that having a manufacturing business heavily dependent on tourism is too unreliable, even in busy years, and that we needed to take our shop and our products out to the national market.

"The website and mail order developments will allow us to increase our year-round trade and turnover and will, hopefully, lead to more sustainable employment."