Would you race down a 50% gradient hill just to claim a free wheel of cheese? Well, these mad bastards do it every year in Gloucestershire, and the 200-year-old tradition is probably more popular now than it ever was. The world’s craziest cheese rolling race returns to Cooper’s Hill this Spring Bank Holiday, just an hour from Birmingham.
The earliest evidence of cheese rolling at Cooper’s Hill is from a message to the Gloucester town crier in 1826 (reference to it suggests it was already an old tradition dating back to the mid-1700s). But back then, cheese rolling was just part of the Cooper’s Hill wake, alongside other events like ‘wrestling for a belt’, ‘grinning for a cake’ and ‘shin-kicking’.
Popularity exploded in the mid-20th century, after some University of Bristol students filmed it in 1982. Since then, Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling has appeared in songs, paintings, and documentaries. Postmodernist American author Thomas Pynchon mentions it in his tome, Mason & Dixon, while a special Double Gloucester is only available in the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the end of May.
What are the details for the 2026 Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling race?
Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling will take place on Monday, May 25, 2026, in the village of Brockworth. The first race will start at 12pm, with a further four races taking place every 15 minutes—including a women’s race and a children’s race going uphill—with a final race at 1.30pm
Very recently, the American-born Cooper Cummings set a fastest-ever race time of 13 seconds. Local lad Chris Anderson is still the record holder for the most wins, with 23, while YouTuber Tooleko became the first person to win from Germany in 2024. You’ve got to go back to 1997 for a record-breaking (and bone-breaking) 33 injuries.
Surprising to no one, injuries are common. Broken bones, dislocated shoulders, that sort of thing. A woman even won the ladies’ race in 2023, despite being knocked unconscious (now that’s pure dedication from Delaney Irving or simply plain luck). But if you’d like to take part, just turn up at the top of the hill, register your name, and join in.
Be warned that there’s no official medical team on site, and even if you just want to spectate, keep an eye out for a 9lb Double Gloucester cheese wheel hitting speeds of 70mph coming towards you. Winners of the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling race will get to keep the ultimate prize, though, the cheese itself.
