The Cheese-Rolling at Cooper’s Hill
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester is known for a cheese-rolling event in which competitors pursue a wheel of cheese down a steep slope. The event has become a prominent example of a local custom attracting attention well beyond its original community.
Accounts of its antiquity vary. Claims of a precise prehistoric origin cannot be established merely from the unusual nature of the contest. Its modern history, including questions of safety and organisation, is part of the tradition’s documented development.
Place: Cooper’s Hill, Gloucestershire. Evidence: recorded local sporting custom. Source trail: Gloucestershire local history collections and historical reporting on the Cooper’s Hill event.