Cool Place of the Day: Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling, Gloucestershire

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Britain has a surprising number of wacky annual events but one of the weirdest is definitely the Cheese Rolling at Cooper's Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, which takes places this year tomorrow, on Bank Holiday Monday.

In a nutshell, several large Gloucestershire cheeses are rolled down a hill, and the locals throw themselves trying to catch each one until they are proclaimed the winner. It’s not a knock-out competition (unless you count concussion), but in fact five separate races for men and for women, all of whom hurtle down to the waiting arms of local rugby club members whose job it is to catch racers before they end up head long in a prickly hawthorn bush. And their prize? To keep the cheese, of course.

The event hasn't been without controversy over recent years, and it is clear why when you see how steep is the slope down which the cheeses are rolled. The authorities actually deem it a safety hazard and they would prefer spectator cordons, ticket sales and plenty of police in attendance. The locals, however, like it just as it is, and so far they're winning apart from one crucial respect – the cheese is now sadly made of foam for safety reasons.

That aside, it’s a fun day out for locals and visitors alike, attracting an international pool of participants, and plenty of Japanese TV crews in attendance. But make sure you arrive a good few hours before the noon start and park yourself either side of the hill to get a good view: the bottom is cleared of people before each race to avoid unwitting collisions between spectators and racers.

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