The Cheese
The cheese currently used in the event is 7-9lb. Double Gloucester, a hard cheese typically manufactured in cylindrical blocks. Each is protected for the rolling by a wooden casing round the side and is decorated with ribbons at the start of the race.
Formerly, three cheeses were presented by parishioners, and the cheeses were usually rolled by them. A collection is usually made now to purchase them as well as sweets and also to provide prize money.
The current supplier is local cheesemaker Diana Smart, who has supplied the cheese since 1988.
At one time, hessian covers were put on the cheeses. During the Second World War rationing was introduced, preventing the use of a cheese in the event. Consequently, from 1941 to 1954 a wooden "cheese" was used instead with a piece of cheese in a hollow space in the centre of the wooden replica.
Read more about this topic: Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling And Wake
Famous quotes containing the word cheese:
“Apart from cheese and tulips, the main product of the country is advocaat, a drink made from lawyers.”
—Alan Coren (b. 1938)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)