Cheese-maker Warning

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gl ... e-22639675

Cheese-maker warned against supplying Gloucester cheese-rolling

A cheese-maker has been told by police she may be liable for legal action if she supplies Gloucester's famous annual cheese-rolling event.

The event sees revellers chase a wheel of Double Gloucester down a steep hill and has seen some participants injured.

Diana Smart, who makes the 7lb (3kg) cheese for the event at her Churcham farm, said police warned her about her responsibilities as organiser.

She said: "It made me feel pretty angry... there's not a lot we can do,"

Mrs Smart, 86, who has made cheese for the event for 25 years, said police had warned her she could be regarded as responsible if anybody was injured.

'Liability issues'
The cheese-rolling at Cooper's Hill dates back to at least the early 19th Century and this year's event is set to take place on Monday.

Some 15,000 people turned up for the last official cheese-rolling event in 2009 but the hill, near Brockworth, is only suitable to host about 5,000 spectators.

(continued, found the cheese pusher after all these years)

[laklak]

Hey kids, you can still have fun AND be safe! Instead of rolling a giant cheddar down a hill, how about rolling Baby Bonbels across a snooker table? Or maybe a rousing game of pin the tail on the donkey (with Velcro tabs instead of pins, of course!). Safety doesn't have to be dull!

[mistermack]

Coopers hill is only a couple of miles from where I live.

Cheeserolling has been going on in Gloucester for hundreds of years. You run at your own risk.
Just like, in the Isle of Man, you race at your own risk. People regularly get killed at the Isle of Man. It's dangerous.
Cheese rolling is about one thousandth as dangerous as racing a motorbike.

The police are really out of order. I'm tempted to make an official complaint. They don't like that.

[Trinity]

That's bonkers, if any thing, they could run the event over a couple of days and have less spectators at each event. Down here in Devon we have the Ottery tar barrels- burning tar barrels are rolled down through the village. It's mayhem but you just need to get out of the way!!

[Sean Hayden]

It must be joke.

burning tar barrels are rolled down through the village.

[Seabass]

It must be joke.

burning tar barrels are rolled down through the village.

[PsychoSerenity]

Liable for legal action from whom exactly? How can anything be put on the person supplying the cheese?


They have tar barrels in Hatherleigh too, which is near where I grew up - but I never got to see them. I think they used to roll them down the streets, but in recent years at least they just put them on a sled and run like buggery while the kids chase.

[mistermack]

My favourite May day fest is in Padstow.

They have two "hobby horses" that dance round the town, with a "teaser" taunting them.
The music is really hypnotic, and it's the closest you can get to a genuine pagan rite.
It really gets your blood going, much more exciting than any christian crap.
I can really see the attraction to medieval people, of pagan ritual.