Cheese Rolling In Gloucestershire

2. 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 of Brockworth - the local village, but now
people from all over the world take part. The event
takes its name from the hill on which it occurs.
The 2010 event has been cancelled due to safety
concerns over the number of people visiting the
event, but it is hoped that it will be held on the late
May Bank Holiday in 2011

3. 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, but since it has a one second head start and can reach
speeds up to 70mph (112 km/h), enough to knock over and injure a
spectator, this is unlikely.
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 Cheese Rollers" is also the name of the nearby pub in Shurdington,
about 3 miles from Cooper's Hill, but the nearest are The Cross Hands and The
Victoria (both of which are in Brockworth). Competitors will frequent these
venues for some pre-event Dutch courage or discussion of tactics, and after
the event for some convalescence.
Cooper's Hill is also a stop on the Cotswold Way.

4. The cheese used in the event is Double Gloucester,
a hard cheese typically manufactured in
cylindrical blocks.

The current supplier is local
cheesemaker Diana Smart,

who has supplied the
cheese since 1988.
During the Second World War rationing was
introduced, preventing the use of a cheese in the
event. Consequently, from 1941 to 1954 a wooden
"cheese" was used instead with a piece of cheese
in a hollow space in the centre of the wooden
replica

5. Due to the steepness and uneven surface of the hill there are
usually a number of injuries, ranging from sprained ankles to
broken 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 will attend the event, since there is invariably at least
one and often several more 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.

6. Dave Allen is widely credited to bringing
cheese rolling to a wider audience than
just locals, when he visited during his
1970's series, Dave Allen At Large. After
that it attracted ever increasing levels of
TV coverage.

7. Cheese Rolling was prominently featured in the
first episode of the (UK) Five (channel) series
"Rory & Paddy's Great British Adventure",
broadcast on 13 August 2008, and was
described as "the grandaddy of weird sports"
by the titular Rory McGrath and
Paddy McGuinness
Cheese rolling appeared in the television series
ER, Season 14 Episode 8, "Coming Home",
where a motley bunch of cheese rolling
enthusiasts (with accents of dubious accuracy)
have a dispute, allowing Morris to demonstrate
the Judgement of Solomon

8. The Cheese Rolling festival was briefly
mentioned in episode 6x03 of Gilmore Girls
"The Ungraduate" in which Logan
Huntzberger speaks of his time in Gloucester
with his friends Finn and Collin. Logan shows
his bandaged hand where he had injured
himself during the cheese rolling festival.
In 2008, the event was attended by a
Brazilian comic duo, Vesgo and Silvio, from
the TV show Pânico na TV, although the
couple failed to make it to the bottom of
the hill.

9. Cheese rolling is an online game on the
virtual pet site Neopets and carries the
same rules.
An article in the magazine Muse has
covered cheese rolling.
The Maccabees video for their song 'Can
You Give It' features the 2009 event and
winner.
On July 28, 2009, the ESPN program E:60
covered a five-race event at Cooper's Hill
which took place in May, 2009.