If you thought Wisconsin was the global home of cheese heads, Gloucester says hold my brie.
The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is an annual race that pushes the limits of the body and the laws of nature to find out who truly has the ultimate love of cheese.
Envision this: The charming English countryside. A mob of people standing atop a steep hill two football fields long. A lonely wheel of cheese careening down the hill as fast as 80 miles per hour.
No Green Bay Packers game can deliver the thrills, speed, or ambulance-inducing insanity of this annual British cheese rolling race.
Image Credit: Getty Images, Thomas Barwick.
Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake
Kebbuck and chaos: What to know about the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling Race and Wake.
What country is the Cheese Rolling race in?
The cheese rolling race takes place in England, as it has since at least the 1820s. The cheese being rolled is as English as the hill it speeds down: a wheel of Double Gloucester cheese made in Gloucester, of course.
How often do the Cheese Rolling races take place?
There’s a cheese rolling race every year and it typically takes place at the end of May. The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling Race was an officially sanctioned event until 2009, then unsanctioned thereafter due to the risk of injury and lawsuits. The pandemic cut the cheese and the event for 2020 and 2021, but it’s been an annual tradition pandemic aside.
Where is the Cheese Roll 2024?
The Cheese Roll 2024 race will take place on Monday May 27, 2024, on Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England. The first race begins promptly at noon.
Where is the cheese rolling race in relation to London?
A direct train from London Paddington to Gloucester takes less than two hours and will get you to the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Race. From Gloucester train station, you’ll need to cab over to Brockworth, then walk to the Cheese Roll site as many of the streets are closed.
What are the rules of Cheese Rolling?
The rules of the cheese rolling race are straightforward: a group lines up at the top of the hill and once the cheese is rolled, the group races down to the bottom. Ideally, the first person to grab the cheese wins, but the cheese rolls so fast that it far-and-away beats the racers. So, whoever crosses the finish line at the bottom of the hill first wins.
Is cheese rolling British?
Yes, as odd as it sounds and even odder as it is to watch, cheese rolling is as British as the underground railway — much older, in fact. There’s written evidence of the rolling cheese race at Cooper’s Hill dating back to the 1820s but historians believe it’s much older than that.
Can anyone join the rolling cheese race?
Yes, anyone who’s brave enough and bold enough can run downhill chasing a cheese wheel tumbling at breakneck speeds. There are both men’s and women’s races. We recommend preparing with a vigorous stretching routine, a deep dive into the laws of physics, and fabricating a minor injury or preexisting condition that’ll allow you to back out of the race at the last moment.
Image Credit: Getty Images, Ana del Castillo. Image Location: Cooper's Hill, Gloucester, England
Visiting Gloucester for the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Race
Reasons we love visiting Gloucester and staying beyond the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Race:
- You can chance breaking your leg on any hill you wish to run on. The county of Gloucester has many hills, both steep and safe, though we’d recommend hiking them at a cautious speed. Cleeve Hill is the highest point in Gloucester and the views are best enjoyed without a fractured fibula.
- You can dirty up any wheel of cheese you desire. Single Gloucester. Double Gloucester. Even the blasphemous English Cotswold Cheese, a neighborly variation of the Double Gloucester. Seriously, there are no rules against which fromages can frolic in the grass. Our personal preference? We like to keep a Single Gloucester wheel at rest on a picnic blanket in the Alney Island Nature Reserve. But you do you.
- You can make it an easy day trip as part of an English excursion. Getting to Gloucester by train is an easy day trip from London, so you can check-off the cheese rolling race in a single day. Take another train into the Cotswolds for a pint or up to Birmingham where heavy metal (the birthplace of Black Sabbath) and hard rock (the site of Lapworth Museum of Geology) reign supreme.
Download the Trainline app today and purchase train tickets up to the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Race 2024 in Gloucester.
Header Image Credit: Getty Images, Raylipscombe. Image Location: Cooper's Hill, Gloucester, England