Cheese rolling...
The Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake is an annual
event held in May at Cooper's Hill near Gloucester.
Competitors race down the hill after a Double Gloucester
cheese, and the first person over the line wins the
cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the
cheese, but since it has a second's head start and can
reach speeds up to 70mph (enough to knock over and injure
a spectator in 1997), this rarely occurs.
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 concussions. 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 summarized 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".
A view down Cooper's Hill, from the start point of the
race to the finish (where the dog-walkers are). The
face of the hill itself is concave and hence cannot
be seen from this angle. The posts at the bottom are
signs from the local council requesting that, to avoid
soil erosion, people do not walk on the face of the
hill. The posts are removed for the annual event.
Enlarge
A view down Cooper's Hill, from the start point of the
race to the finish (where the dog-walkers are). The
face of the hill itself is concave and hence cannot
be seen from this angle. The posts at the bottom are
signs from the local council requesting that, to avoid
soil erosion, people do not walk on the face of the
hill. The posts are removed for the annual event.
The last race of the 2005 event 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.
Accurate information is hard to come by, but the tradition
is at least 200 years old. Suggestions are made that
it may date back to Roman times, or may have been a
pagan healing ritual, but there is no evidence for this. |
