Concept: Cheese - Cheese Rolling

The Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is an annual event held on the Spring Bank Holiday at Cooper's Hill,  near Gloucester in the Cotswolds region of England. It is traditionally by and for the people who live in the local village of Brockworth, but now people from all over the world take part. The event takes its name from the hill on which it occurs.

The event is traditional. In recent years, it has been managed in a quasi-official manner, but the events of 2010 and 2011 took place spontaneously without any management. Spectators were furious at the prospect of being charged a £20 entry fee.

From the top of the hill a round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled, and competitors race down the hill after it. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese, however it has around a one second head start and can reach speeds up to 70 mph (112 km/h), enough to knock over and injure a spectator.

"The Cheese Rollers" pub in the nearby village of Shurdington, about 3 miles from Cooper's Hill, takes its name from the event. The nearest pubs to the event are The Cross Hands and The Victoria (both of which are in Brockworth) which competitors frequent for some pre-event Dutch courage or discussion of tactics, and after the event for some convalescence.

Cooper's Hill is a stop on the Cotswold Way.

Accurate information is hard to come by, but the tradition is at least 200 years old. Each year the event becomes more and more popular with contestants coming from all across the world to compete or even simply to spectate.

The 2010 event took place without management due to safety concerns over the number of people visiting the event, but it is hoped that it will continue to be held, following the launch of a 'Save The Cheese Roll' campaign. Despite the cancellation and lack of paramedics, around 500 people showed up in 2010 to hold some spontaneous races, with six time champion Chris Anderson winning again. No major injuries were reported.

On 24 March 2011, it was announced that no management would occur for another year. The organisers blamed backlashes that included death threats following an announcement of how the 2011 event would be run. The plans had been made to conduct the event under mounting pressure from the local council who stipulated it should include security, perimeter fencing to allow crowd control and spectator areas that would charge an entrance fee. The event proceeded without management.

"No-one's going to stop us doing it. They say it's not official but we are all Brockworth people and we're running the cheese today so it is official. We strongly believe in it."

—Former winner Helen Thorpe in May 2011.

At this stage the future of management of the event remains unknown.

"Since we announced an entry fee, we have been bombarded with so much hostility and criticism, much of it at a personal level, including accusations of profiteering and some of the committee have even received threats."

—Cheese Rolling Committee spokesman Richard Jefferies speaking in March 2011

Due to the steepness and uneven surface of the hill there are usually a number of injuries, ranging from sprained ankles tobroken bones and concussion. A first aid service is provided by the local St John Ambulance (Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud Divisions) at the bottom of the hill, with a volunteer rescue group on hand to carry down to them any casualties who do not end up at the bottom through gravity. A number of ambulance vehicles attend the event, since there is invariably at least one, and often several injuries requiring hospital treatment. Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling has been summarised as "twenty young men chase a cheese off a cliff and tumble 200 yards to the bottom, where they are scraped up by paramedics and packed off to hospital".

The race of 2005 was delayed while the ambulances returned from the hospital, all of them having been required to transport casualties from previous races. Nevertheless, it was one of the most popular events in recent years, with many more participants than were able to run in the four races.