In 1851 a gentleman named John Murray Gibbons opened a country store in Granville Massachusetts - a little town nestled in the foothills of the Berkshires.

John Gibbons loved a properly aged tangy cheddar, "ripened on the vine", as he put it.

Finding that his cellar afforded just the right combination of temperature and humidity for ripening cheese, he "aged some up" for his own use. It wasn't long before word got around that John had better cheese in his cellar than he sold over the counter in his store.

In those years, there were no credit cards or ATM's, and many purchases in the store were paid for with goods rather than cash. An interesting peek at the old accounting records reveals that Mr. George Armitage traded 20 bushels of grain, two pigs, two calves, a quantity of corn, apples, and a barrel of cider between April and September of 1874. in 1879 Peter J. Maylier was hired for what was then a living wage of $12.00 per month.

Gibbons Cheddar (which we now know as Granville Cellar Aged Cheddar) attracted more and more attention and its fame spread way beyond Granville. Mr. Gibbons took his secret recipe in hand and went looking for a small dairy that still made cheese the old-fashioned way and could provide him with the cargo he needed.

John Murray Gibbon’s secret recipe is still adhered to and made exclusively for the Granville Country Store... where it is still aged down in the cellar.

In 1935 the Gibbons family sold the business to "furriner" (foreigner), Paul Nobbs. Mr. Nobbs had called on them as salesman for Sunshine Biscuits. In 1971 he resold the business to Rowland Entwistel. Ernest Hodur of Granville took over the reins in 1977.

Current owners Tina G. Deblois and Tracy V. Mountain, a mother and daughter, bought the Granville Country Store in 2006. Tracy, her mother, and her husband John Mountain, have pledged to maintain the famous aging processes that make Granville Cheddar so unique.

During these 169 years, sales have increased dramatically with many fine stores and gourmet shops featuring the cheese. Fundraising organizations sell Granville Cheddar to raise money for their different programs and of course.