Cultura Inglesa de Duque de Caxias

The Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake is an annual event held in the month of May at

Cooper's Hill, SO892146, near Cheltenham ...and Gloucester in the Cotswolds region of England. It is traditionally by and for the people of Brockworth- the local village, but now people from over the world take part. The event takes its name from the hill it occurs on. From the top of the hill a round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled, and competitors race down the hill after it.

The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese, but since it has a one second head start and can reach speeds up to 70 mph (about 112 kph, enough to knock over and injure a spectator as it did in 1997), this rarely occurs.

 

Accurate information is hard to come by, but the tradition is at least 200 years old. Suggestions have been made that the event may either date back to Roman times or have been a pagan healing ritual, but there is no evidence for this.

"The Cheese Rollers" is also the name of the nearby pub in Shurdington, about 3 miles from Cooper's Hill, but the nearest are The Cross Hands and The Victoria (both of which are in Brockworth). Competitors will frequent these venues for some pre-event Dutch courage* or discussion of tactics, and after the event for some convalescence.

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 summarised 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".

The race of 2005 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.

* The phrase Dutch courage is a slang term for courage gained from intoxication by alcohol. It is synonymous with liquid courage

For more information about this event:
visit http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpzEF0D2xfE (and related videos)