The Cooper's Hill Cheese Roll
Chasing cheese ... and breaking bones. (The Bus 1.9)
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ARCHIVE EDITION - ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 5 MAY 2022
The Stop
The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll is an annual race held at Cooper’s Hill, near Brockworth, Gloucester, England1 during which a 3-4 kilogram (7 pound) Double Gloucester cheese2 is rolled down the hill, chased by contestants. The first runner to the bottom wins - and the cheese is the nominal prize.
Released by the Master of Ceremonies at the top of the notoriously steep hill - it is 200 yards long and nearly vertical - the cheese cannot actually be caught as it reaches a speed of up to 70mph. Though originally held for and by residents of the local village, the event now attracts contestants from all over the world.
According to the event’s official website,3 the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Roll is one of the oldest surviving customs in Great Britain. The first written evidence of the event is in a message to the Gloucester Town Crier in 1826, but it was already an ancient tradition at this point. The Cheese Roll has taken place for hundreds of years - and some theories root its origins in pre-Roman times. Reasons for its beginning range from tenuous connections to pagan fertility rituals to the more mundane theory that it began as a requirement for maintaining grazing rights on the Common.
Due to the hill’s steepness and rugged unevenness, many injuries occur each year - some requiring hospital treatment. Most injuries - sprains, breaks and dislocations - are acquired by the participants, but spectators have also been hurt by the runaway cheese or a flailing contestant. In 1997, 33 people were injured to a degree which caused the event to be cancelled the following year. In 2010, after further serious injuries, the event was cancelled again. This decision caused an uproar that led to the creation of the ‘Save the Gloucester Cheese Rolling’ campaign. In the end, their protest was successful and the event was restored, albeit with a few safety precautions put into place for onlookers.
The official website offers a rationale for the event: ‘The lure of participating in what could very well be called Gloucestershire’s most extreme ‘sport’ can be put down to the absolute adrenaline thrill of taking on such a steep and treacherous incline. Some people win, some merely finish and many get injured - this year saw a number of broken bones, sprains and minor injuries - but all look back on the cheese rolling experience with fond memories. For all those taking part in this potentially dangerous race it seems to be a risk worth taking.’4
To see the madness, watch this:
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to a fascinating (if a bit lengthy) article from Smithsonian Magazine about the nearly mythical status of a mahogany tree from Belize which has obsessed luthiers (i.e., guitar-makers) for years. Worth a look for the photography and embedded videos alone.
The Recommendation
Today’s book is the one which introduced me to the existence of cheese rolling: Thomas Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon. This is an excellent novel - though arguably not the best one with which to start reading Pynchon if you’re unfamiliar with his work. Like most of his novels, it’s long, complex and filled with his trademark jokes and absurdities - but to compound the difficulty it’s also written in an idiomatic 18th Century English, complete with that era’s vocabulary, capitalisation, spelling and punctuation. For example, the opening sentence:
Snow-Balls have flow their Arcs, starr’d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins, carried Hats away into the brisk Wind off Delaware, - the Sleds are brought in and their Runners carefully dried and greased, shoes deposited in the back Hall, a stocking’d-foot Descent made upon the great Kitchen, in a purposeful Dither since Morning, punctuated by the ringing Lids of various Boilers and Stewing-Pots, fragrant with Pie-Spices, peel’d Fruits, Suet, heated Sugar, - the Children, having all upon the Fly, among rhythmic slaps of Batter and Spoon, coax’d and stolen what they might, proceed, as upon each afternoon all this snowy Advent, to a comfortable Room at the rear of the House, years since given over to their carefree Assaults.
OK … it might not grab you at first, but please trust me: it’s a read like none other and one of my favourites. But it’s not easy.
Here is a review by TC Boyle (another author worth checking out): New York Times: Mason and Dixon
The Sounds
These are five tracks I’ve been listening to on repeat over the last few days. They’re all great - but the first and last tracks are of particular note: ‘Doses & Mimosas’ (Cherub, 2015), ‘Peaches’ (The Presidents of the United States of America, 1995), ‘Changing of the Seasons’ (Two Door Cinema Club, 2012), ‘Something Human’ (Muse, 2018) and ‘Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked’ (Cage the Elephant, 2008). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from British novelist (and Nobel laureate) Doris Lessing:5
“The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven’t changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don’t change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.”
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this stop - I hope you enjoyed a brief diversion from your regular journey!
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Until the next stop …
I first encountered cheese-rolling in Thomas Pynchon’s novel Mason and Dixon. In the scene where he explains how he met his wife, Mason describes being at the cheese-rolling where - due to various machinations because it was the Age of Reason - the cheese normally rolled was replaced by one that had been ‘octupled in all dimensions, making it more like a 512-fold or Quincentenariduodecuple Gloucester.’ Lost in thought, he accidentally crosses the monster cheese’s path and is saved at the last moment by the shove of his future wife (167-170).
The cheese - decorated with ribbons at the start of the race - is made by local cheese maker Mrs Smart.
A good bit of this issue’s information comes from the official website: Gloucester Cheese Rolling.
Yes, it’s clearly nuts. But doesn’t it makes life more interesting to know there are people out there wiling to do it?
That cheese rolling is madness! I must have missed this the first time, or hadn’t yet hopped on the bus.