Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake

What happens

From the top of the slope an eight or nine pound round of Double Gloucester is set rolling. It gathers speed fast, because the hill drops at roughly fifty per cent, and it can travel quickly enough to knock a bystander over. Behind it come the runners. Each one hopes to catch the cheese, though nobody manages it, since the cheese gets about a second's start and stays ahead. What counts is who crosses the line at the foot of the hill first, and that person is given the cheese. Several races run through the day, with men's and women's events held separately, and entrants in these downhill races must be eighteen or older.

Origins and history

The earliest piece of writing about the chase is a note sent to the Gloucester town crier and printed in Berrow's Worcester Journal in June 1836. Even so, the custom is thought to be older. Some accounts place a first Gloucestershire race ten years before that date; others say it may go back six hundred years, and a 1954 book on English festivals called it famous for at least five hundred. Two explanations have been offered. One is that it grew out of a duty to keep grazing rights on the common. The other is a pagan reading, in which burning bundles were rolled downhill to mark the new year after winter.

The cheese and prizes

Double Gloucester is a firm cheese from the county, shaped into a round. For the race each one is fitted with a wooden casing around its edge and tied with ribbons before the start. Long ago parishioners brought three cheeses and rolled them themselves. Today a collection is taken up to buy the cheeses, the sweets and the prize money. Since 1988 the rounds have come from one family farm at Churcham, run by Diana Smart and her son; she died in 2021. In 2013 organisers used a lightweight foam copy instead, and the real cheese came back the following year.

Safety and change

Crowds have brought trouble. In 1993 sixteen people were hurt, four of them badly. By 2009 around fifteen thousand spectators turned up where only some five thousand could fit, and the organisers called off the next year's running; roughly a hundred people held an unofficial race anyway. A ticketed two-day version was proposed for 2011 but dropped after complaints about the price, and about two hundred still ran. The event has since carried on with no official management. COVID-19 cancelled it in 2020 and 2021, and it came back on Sunday 5 June 2022.

In wider culture

A painting of the chase on Cooper's Hill by Charles March Gere, made in 1948, belongs to the Museum of Gloucester. Comedian Bridget Christie brought a show about the event to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006, and the Maccabees filmed a music video around it in 2009. Terry Pratchett gave the roll a place in his 2010 novel I Shall Wear Midnight. A pub in the neighbouring village of Shurdington took the name The Cheese Rollers in the early 1970s and keeps old cheese casings on display. Netflix began its 2020 documentary series We Are the Champions with an episode on it.

How Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is kept

The Master of Ceremonies starts things off at the top by throwing buns, biscuits and sweets to the crowd. A round of cheese, held in a wooden case and trimmed with ribbons, is then sent down the slope. Runners set off after it and try to reach the foot of the hill first. Downhill races are for adults, with separate men's and women's events, usually three men's and one women's. Uphill races, open to children and adults, are held as well. The winner of a downhill race receives the cheese. Spectators watch from the hillside, though the ground is steep and uneven.

When and where

It is kept once a year on the Spring Bank Holiday, which in the United Kingdom falls in late May. Before that it belonged to Whit Monday, and Jean Jefferies, who wrote about the event, says it began at midsummer. Dates have shifted at times: after two cancelled years the race returned on Sunday 5 June 2022.

At Cooper's Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, in the west of England. The slope runs about two hundred yards, the hill is some 287 metres high, and the drop is roughly fifty per cent, which is what makes the chase so fast. People travel from far away to run in it and to watch, and coverage has made it known well beyond the county.

What Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake means

The chase carries meanings beyond the race. One reading holds that rolling burning bundles downhill marked the end of winter and the start of the new year. The Master of Ceremonies scatters buns, biscuits and sweets from the top of the hill, described as a fertility rite meant to encourage the fruits of the harvest. Others link the custom to old rights of grazing on the common. The prize of local cheese ties the day to the farming of the county.

Questions people ask about Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake

See also

Egg rollingA spring game of rolling decorated hard-boiled eggs down hills or along lawnsMother's DayA worldwide annual celebration dedicated to mothers, maternal bonds and family careMorris danceA rhythmic English folk dance performed in costume with bells, sticks and handkerchiefsApril Fools' DayAn annual day of lighthearted pranks, hoaxes and teasing kept on the first of April

Good reading and sources

• BBC - Gloucestershire - Our Crazy CountyBBC, Article
• Gloucestershire cheese race winner finds himself in a pickleThe Guardian, Article
• Gloucestershire cheese rolling event strains emergency servicesBBC, Article
• 'King of the Hill' Sets Lifetime Record in British Cheese-Rolling CompetitionNational Geographic, Article
• BBC - Gloucestershire - Our Crazy CountyBBC, Article
• Gloucestershire cheese race winner finds himself in a pickleThe Guardian, Article
• Gloucestershire cheese rolling event strains emergency servicesBBC, Article
• 'King of the Hill' Sets Lifetime Record in British Cheese-Rolling CompetitionNational Geographic, Article

• Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.