Longest-running cheese-rolling race

The tradition of chasing a double-gloucester cheese down the 180-m-long (590-ft) Cooper's Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, UK, can be traced back at least to a written account from 1836, although historians believe that the ceremony stretches back for hundreds of years, and may even have its roots in pagan fertility rituals predating the Roman era.

Cooper's Hill is located in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, near to the village of Brockworth. The area has been inhabited from at least 500 BCE, when the site was occupied by a large Iron Age encampment, and it has been theorized that pagan rituals have taken place on the hillside – the rolling of burning wooden wheels or bundles of whithies, for example – from that period onwards, to be replaced at some point in time with truckles of the local cheese.

The year 1836 was cited in the Citizen newspaper of Gloucester on 27 July 1883, in reference to a written request to the town's crier to proclaim the "Cooper's Hill Weke [Wake] to commence on Wits [Whitsuntide] Monday per sisly [precisely] at 3 o'clock" and at which "2 Cheses [cheeses] to be ron [run] for." Among the other prizes offered in this proclamation are a plum cake for the winner of a gurning competition, herrings for bobbing, ribbons to be danced for, a belt to be wrestled for, and a "bladder of snuff to be chatred [chattered] for by hold wiming [old women]."

As Cooper's Hill is on common land, the rolling of a cheese down the precipitous incline also symbolically maintains the continuity of common grazing rights for locals. This explains why a cheese is rolled even if the race events are cancelled, as happened during the "foot and mouth" crisis of 2001 and the two-year lockdown as a result of COVID-19 in 2020–21.Each year, there are at least four downhill events – the third of which is traditionally reserved for ladies – as well as uphill races and other familiy festivities. Injuries are common in the downhill races, as competitors hurl themselves down the 1:2 incline in pursuit of the 8-lb (3.6-kg) double-gloucester. To win the cheese, competitors must grab it or at least cross the finish line first.

The most victorious cheese chaser, at least since the advent of written records, is Chris Anderson, a former British Army soldier from Brockworth, whose 23rd win came in the first race of the 2022 event, after which he announced his retirement. "This is the 23rd and final time," he announced. "I was so scared beforehand."

The most wins of the ladies' race is four, shared by two women: Ilse Koeppler (UK, consecutively from 1941 to 1944) and Florence "Flo" Early (UK, in 2008, 2016, 2018 and 2019). She also announced her retirement, after her last race left her with a sprained ankle.

Turophiles have been able to indulge in other cheese-related sports in the UK – such as the World Stilton Cheese-Rolling Championships, the Chester Cheese-Rolling Championships, the annual rolling of Edam down Ide Hill in Kent and the Cardiff Cheese-Tossing Championships – but no other event has the longevity of the Cooper's Hill Wake.