Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling

Cooper's Hill cheese rolling is held on the spring bank holiday Monday, the last Monday in May, on the steep hillside above Brockworth, east of Gloucester. The 2026 race was run on Monday 25 May. By tradition the next is on Monday 31 May 2027, the spring bank holiday, but with nobody in charge that date is never confirmed in advance. It is unofficial and at your own risk: there has been no organiser since 2010, so nobody sells tickets, provides stewards, plans the traffic or announces the date.

Unofficial, and declared unsafe

In May 2025 Tewkesbury Borough Council's safety advisory group, which brings together agencies including the emergency services, said it had no alternative but to declare the event unsafe. With no official organiser, nobody had sent in the plans showing how the public would be kept safe, and at past races ambulances and rapid response vehicles struggled to reach the site. The council says it has no desire to stop the tradition, but anyone who goes, to run or to watch, takes on the risk themselves. The council's statement (opens in a new tab) sets out its reasons.

What happens on the day

A Double Gloucester cheese is sent down a slope of about 50 per cent and the runners throw themselves after it. The first to the bottom wins the cheese. There are several races through the day, for men, women and children, and injuries among the runners are common. The story of the race, its cheesemakers and its cancellations is in our cheese rolling article.

Getting there and what to bring

Cooper's Hill is a wooded hill just beyond Brockworth, on the way up to Birdlip. There is no official car park, and in 2025 the council said it had asked how traffic and parking would be dealt with on the day and had been given no plans. If you go, wear boots that grip on wet grass, keep well clear of the course, and bring water and a coat, as there is no shelter on the slope. On any other day the Cotswold Way crosses the hill on its stage from Birdlip to Painswick, and you can climb it in peace.

Where the race comes from

Written records of the race go back to the early 19th century, though the custom is probably older. The stories that it began as a pagan rite, or to keep grazing rights on the hill, are theories with no evidence behind them. For many years the cheeses have come from the Smart family's Gloucestershire dairy, first made by Diana Smart and now by her son Rod and his family. The race has had no official organiser since 2010: about 15,000 people came to the last official race in 2009, on a hillside that ITV News reported was suitable for about 5,000, and it has run unofficially ever since.

On the same bank holiday Monday, Tetbury runs its Woolsack Races up Gumstool Hill.