CANCEL CULTURE REDO

Cerne Abbas Giant’s manhood restored to cheese


Telegraph reporters
Sun, 31 December 2023 

The Oxford Cheese Company confirmed that the giant has been returned to his former glory - BNPS

A cheese company accused of castrating the Cerne Abbas Giant has reinstated the figure’s manhood following a row.

In June, the Oxford Cheese Company was criticised for featuring the giant on its Cerne Abbas Man vintage cheddar – minus the figure’s oversized phallus.

But customers who have recently purchased the Dorset-inspired product have spotted the giant’s manhood once again featured on the cheese’s packaging.


Ivan Kirby, an Oxfordshire resident, purchased the cheese from a shop in Yarnton, near Oxford, after being amused by the change in packaging.

He said that the change was a “victory for common sense”.

He added: “I think it’s splendid that they’ve seen sense and truly made their vintage cheddar full strength.”

At 180ft, the giant is Britain’s largest, and possibly best-known, chalk hill figure.

Various theories abound about the club-wielding giant and his mysteriously large appendage.

Many believe that the carving is an ancient fertility symbol, while others say it depicts the Greco-Roman hero Hercules.

In June, the cheesemaker was criticised when the giant appeared minus his genitals - BNPS

Vic Irvine, the head brewer at Cerne Abbas Brewery, previously accused the cheesemakers of “emasculating” the giant.

“I think the cheese manufacturers are terrible rotters for taking our giant and taking his penis off him,” he said earlier this year.

Mr Irvine said that he was pleased to see the giant’s phallus back on the packaging but hit out at the company for using the image without making cheese in the village of Cerne Abbas.

He said: “It’s obviously nice to see our giant restored to his former glory after being emasculated so disrespectfully.

“However the original ‘cheddar’ wasn’t even made in the Somerset parish with the famous gorge and then for the mystery substance to be marketed by a cheesemonger of Oxford smacks of desperation.

“We are proud of our Dorset heritage and we can see the giant from our brewery and more importantly he can see us.

“We love our village and we love our giant.

“We brew beer with barley grown in the Cerne Valley and harvest our own hops that we grow up the side of the brewery in September as we firmly believe that local is best.”

A spokesman for the Oxford Cheese Company confirmed that the giant’s manhood had now been returned to the cover of the cheese.