Cheese Rolling, A Very British Sport.

Imagine if you will Briton in the 8th century.  An era after the romans have skedaddled but before England has come into being.  When Vikings were roaming around, sharpening their axes and looking longingly at the local churches full of gold.  In this world you're just coming out of a long and hard winter and what you really want is to celebrate.  Kick of your winter woolies and party hearty!

You need a party idea.

Do you drink all the mead and sing lewd songs?  Or maybe crack out the musical instruments and rave all night?  What about the old classic of balloons, jelly, ice-cream and pass the parcel?

Nope!  You're going to throw a cheese down a hill and chase it. And thus The Great Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is born.  Hooray!

The actual beginnings of The Cheese Rolling festival are shrouded in the mists of time but it is known to have been going for certain for around 200 years ago.  There is a written record mentioning it in 1826, but even then it was known as an old, old event.  There are theories that it dates back to roman times but chasing a cheese down a hill seems very unseemly for chic Italian so the most likely culprits seem to be those grubby oiks, the pagans!

Today the cheese chasing event is held on Coopers Hill, a steep slope overlooking Brockworth on the outskirts of Gloucester.  Every late May Bank Holiday around 500 or so unhinged loons from all over the world gather at the top of the hill.  At noon The Master of Ceremonies gives a signal to the official cheese roller and a Double Gloucester is chucked off of the top of the hill and the aforementioned loons chase it down the really, REALLY steep hill.  The runners tumble and roll for the next 200 yards, collecting scratches, scrapes and the occasional dislocated bone and the first to the bottom of the hill wins the cheese as well as ten British Pounds Sterling.  Brilliant!

A writer from The Sydney Morning Herald witnessed the event one year. He described the event as "twenty young men chasing a cheese off a cliff and tumbling 200 yards to the bottom, where they are scraped up by paramedics and packed off to hospital".

In recent years there have been grumblings about the safety of the event.  In 2009 it was decided that the event could no longer be held as an official event as 15,000 people turned up and it had become unmanageable.  In 2010 everyone turned up and did it anyway despite warnings from the police.

Sadly not even the madness of cheese rolling can ignore the Coronavirus pandemic and the festival has been called off for the past couple of years but it's sure to be back soon.  

So, I'll see you there then.  No, I won't be taking part but who could miss this  bonkers spectacle... right?