For more than two hundred years the small English village of Brockworth in Gloucestershire has played host to the Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake. In this annual event a round of 8-pound Double Gloucester cheese is rolled down the Cooper’s Hill and competitors fling themselves at it, racing down the steep hillside. The idea is to run after the cheese and catch it. However in reality, the cheese can never actually be caught. The roll of cheese always has a brief headstart and soon reaches breakneck speeds. And Cooper’s Hill is steep with a gradient of 50% and near vertical at times, so staying on feet is near impossible. Participants often end up falling and tumbling head-over-heels down the slope. Injuries, sometimes serious, are common.

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