Cheese rolling at Brockworth

There is something about the human spirit, or at least the young male human spirit, that delights in bravado and risking one’s life for the sheer hell of it. In Spain it is traditional for hundreds of young men (and even a few women) to run through the streets of Pamplona chased by a herd of bulls. In England, things are done a bit differently. Here they fall down a hill while chasing a cheese!


Cheese rolling at Brockworth

The village of Brockworth is in Gloucestershire, where the Cotswold Hills meet the plain of the River Severn. Cooper’s Hill is a particularly steep slope on the edge of the village and it has been the site of the annual cheese rolling event for hundreds of years. It has been recorded as taking place since the early 19th century, but its origins may be even older than that. The traditional date was Whit Monday, but in recent years it has taken place on Spring Bank Holiday which is the last Monday in May.

The idea is that a round Double Gloucester cheese is rolled down the hill and the first person to run after it and catch it wins it as their prize. The only problem is that the hill is extremely steep (almost vertical in places) and the chance of actually running down it, let alone keeping up with the cheese, is virtually nil. Before long gravity takes over and the runners turn into fallers, tumblers, rollers and, if they are really unlucky, candidates for a ride to the nearest hospital in the back of an ambulance!

Although the event was of purely local interest for most of its existence, in recent years it has attracted worldwide attention and people travel from all over to take part or merely spectate. It is now common for four races to take place, each of about twenty competitors. Should all the ambulances be occupied after the first or second race, there is sometimes a delay before the next one can start.


The race

The racers stand at the top of the hill and wait for the traditional call from the master of ceremonies of: “One to be ready. Two to be steady. Three to prepare. Four to be off!” The cheese has a one second start, but it is in little danger of being caught before the end of the 230-metre course as it can reach a speed of 70 miles an hour before it thuds into the straw bales at the foot of the hill. In the photo above you can just see the cheese on the edge of the shadowed area.

Cuts and bruises are to be expected, and dislocations and broken limbs are not unknown. Needless to say, the event has been threatened by health and safety considerations, and the owner of the cheese has been warned that they might be held legally responsible for any injury claims that are forthcoming. However, the force of tradition has always won through and no doubt eighty more idiots will hurl themselves off the Cotswolds every year they are given the chance.

© John Welford

The World Black Pudding Throwing Championships

You can be a world champion in many different ways these days. Perhaps one of the more unusual world titles that might come your way is that of World Black Pudding Thrower.

Ramsbottom’s day of glory

The event is held in September every year at the Royal Oak pub in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England. Ramsbottom is one of the myriad of small towns that are strung along the valleys north of Manchester and were once the centre of Britain’s cotton spinning and cloth-making industry.

The black pudding is a traditional Lancashire delicacy (if that is the right word) consisting mainly of pig’s blood, oatmeal, onions and pork fat. Ramsbottom is a centre of black pudding making, and the town is therefore very proud of its heritage.

But why throw them? And at what?

The answer to the latter question helps to answer the first. The target for the black puddings is Yorkshire puddings, which are very different beasties, being made from flour, eggs and milk. However, it is the “Yorkshire” that is probably more significant here than the “pudding”.

Ever since the Wars of the Roses of the 15^th century, which pitted the House of York against the House of Lancaster, the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, either side of the Pennine Hills, have been rivals. This rivalry has been contested most fiercely on the cricket field, but the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships offers a fresh opportunity. If you are going to hurl Lancashire’s finest at something, why not Yorkshire’s paltry (they would say) offering?

The event attracts competitors from all over the world – probably even Yorkshire. Typically, several hundred people turn up to try their hand at lobbing black puddings at piles of Yorkshires.

There are strict rules, as one might expect. The black puddings are specially made for the competition at a regulation weight of 170 grams and are wrapped in pantyhose to prevent them from disintegrating when thrown. Likewise, the Yorkshires must be of a consistent consistency, which can mean changing them frequently if the weather is wet when the event takes place. A soggy Yorkshire is more difficult to displace than a crisp one.

Another strict rule is that all throws must be underarm, although various techniques can be employed. Expert throwers have devised all sorts of spins and trajectories to achieve maximum devastation of Yorkshires.

Championship day

The event is carried out with considerable celebration. Just down the road from the pub is Ramsbottom station on the preserved East Lancashire Railway. The “golden grid”, which is the “oche” from which throwers take their aim, is transported to Ramsbottom on a steam-hauled train and then borne aloft to the Royal Oak to the accompaniment of Scottish bagpipes.

Other amusements take place during the somewhat lengthy event, including a separate children’s championship and a one-day music festival that is imaginatively entitled “Pudstock”.

At the end of the day the dislodgers of the most Yorkshires, senior and junior, are declared World Champions and everyone goes home happy, having probably drunk the pub dry in the meantime.

© John Welford