page_title: Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A race at The Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake on 27th May 2013 Deutsch: Das Käserennen am 27. Mai 2013. Français&#160;: Une des course du 27 mai 2013. Italiano: Una gara di Cheese rolling. Español: Visión desde el público de una de las carreras celebradas en el festival. 日本語: 2013/5/27のレース. Nederlands: Cheese Rolling op 27 mei 2013. Português: Corrida de 2013; em cada evento, há baterias, ou seja, grupos de pessoas que irão tentar ganhar o queijo. Català: Una cursa del 27 de maig del 2013. Suomi: Kuva vuoden 2013 kilpailusta. Tiếng Việt: Cuộc đua ngày 27 tháng 5 năm 2013. Dansk: Cheese-rolling 27. maj 2013. Euskara: Lasterketa bat 2013ko maiatzaren 27an. Galego: Unha carreira o 27 de maio de 2013.
context_page_description: The Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is an annual event held on the Spring Bank Holiday at Cooper's Hill, near Gloucester in England. It was traditionally held by and for the people who live in the local village of Brockworth, Gloucestershire, but now people from all over the world take part. The Guardian newspaper called it a "world-famous event", with winners coming from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Nepal.
context_section_description: This ceremony originally took place each Whit Monday, before it later was moved to the Spring Bank Holiday. Two possible origins have been proposed for the ceremony. The first is said that it evolved from a requirement for maintaining grazing rights on the common.
  The second proposal is pagan origins for the custom of rolling objects down the hill. It is thought that bundles of burning brushwood were rolled down the hill to represent the birth of the New Year after winter. Connected with this belief is the traditional scattering of buns, biscuits and sweets at the top of the hill by the Master of Ceremonies. This is said to be a fertility rite to encourage the fruits of harvest.
  The first written evidence of cheese rolling is found from a message written to the Gloucester town crier in 1826; even then it was apparent the event was an old tradition. Each year, the event becomes more and more popular, with contestants coming from all across the world to compete, or even simply to watch. 
  In 1982, a team of students from the University of Bristol filmed the May 31 1982 event using film cameras. One camera was set on slow motion. Jamie Hartzell, Director/Writer, Barbara Wyatt, Production Manager/Editor. 1982 Cheese Rolling Day. 
  In 1993, fifteen people were injured, four seriously, chasing cheeses down the one-in-three hill.
  In 2009 it was cancelled due to concerns over health and safety. In 2010 a group of journalists and local residents threw a smaller version, in keeping with tradition, to keep grazing rights. In 2011, Candis Phillips and Sara Stevens bought and dressed four cheeses and so the revival of this famous old tradition continued.
  "No-one's going to stop us doing it. They say it's not official, but we are all Brockworth people, and we're running the cheese today, so it is official. We strongly believe in it."
  — Former winner Helen Thorpe in May 2011.
  The 2011 event took place without management, due to safety concerns over the number of people visiting the event, resulting in the 'Save the Cheese Roll' campaign. Despite the cancellation and lack of paramedics, around 500 people showed up in 2011 to hold some spontaneous races; no major injuries were reported.
  The event is traditional and takes its name from the steep hill on which it occurs. Until recent years, it was managed in a quasi-official manner by nominated locals, but since 2010 the event has taken place spontaneously without any management.
  The cheese-rolling event was cancelled in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
caption: A race on 27 May 2013
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix A700", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.8.4", "Image DateTime": "2013:05:27 16:14:17", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "266", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1334", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8833", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/850", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:05:27 08:01:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:05:27 08:01:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "973/100", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "209/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "8", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1509", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1070", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1186", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "4000", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "4000", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}