On or around on the last Monday in May, people descend from a number of countries upon the village of Brockworth, Gloucestershire to observe and participate in the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake.
At 287 meteres high and 180 meters long, with a slope of roughly 50%, Cooper’s Hill is ripe for a wheel of cheese rolling down it - the wheels of Double Gloucester cheese are 3-4kg and 30cm in diameter, and gather quite the speed down that hill!
Competitors invariably do not catch the cheeses - they has a second or so’s head start - but the first over the finish line can claim it as their prize.
The exact number of races has varied over the years, but as of 2025, there were a total of 7 races - 4 downhill (3 men’s, 1 women’s) and 3 uphill (11 and under, 12-16 and adult’s mixed)
The first written evidence of the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling dates to 1836, but the event is believed to be at least a decade older with some suggestions of it dating back up to five hundred years.