County in England
Gloucestershire
Every spring, daredevils chase a runaway wheel of cheese down a hill so steep that the ambulance crews expect to be busy. Welcome to Gloucestershire.
Key information
- County
- Gloucestershire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 645,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Cheese rolling, the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean, Cheltenham Racecourse, Double Gloucester cheese
- What locals are called
- Gloucestrians
- Famous people
- Edward Jenner, Gustav Holst, Laurie Lee
- Football clubs
- Cheltenham Town, Forest Green Rovers, Gloucester City
About Gloucestershire
The county that chases its cheese
On the Spring Bank Holiday, crowds gather on Cooper's Hill near Brockworth to watch people hurl themselves down a near-vertical slope after a round of Double Gloucester. First to the bottom wins the cheese. Nobody really runs; most tumble, slide and cartwheel. The custom is centuries old and has survived attempts to tidy it away. It is the most famous of Gloucestershire's eccentric traditions, and it has fans around the world. The cheese itself is a local hero. Double Gloucester and its lighter cousin, Single Gloucester, were originally made on farms with milk from the old Gloucester breed of cattle. The county's other edible mascot is the Gloucester Old Spots pig, a spotted breed traditionally fed on windfall apples and whey.
Three landscapes in one county
Gloucestershire is really three counties stitched together. The Cotswolds rise in the east, with honey-coloured limestone villages such as Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water and wool-money churches built when sheep made England rich. In the west, the Forest of Dean is an ancient royal hunting forest where Free Miners still hold special mining rights. Eligibility rests on birth and residence in the Hundred of St Briavels, a minimum age of 21, and a year and a day of qualifying mining work. Wild boar, which had been extinct in Britain for centuries, have been roaming there again in recent decades. Between them runs the Severn Vale, along the country's longest river. The Severn is famous for its tidal bore, a wave that surges upriver and draws surfers and spectators.
Kings, cathedrals and a Roman boomtown
Cirencester began life as the Roman town of Corinium, which became one of the largest towns in Roman Britain. In the Middle Ages, Gloucester became a place where kings were crowned and buried. Edward II was laid to rest in Gloucester Cathedral in 1327 after his death at nearby Berkeley Castle, and his tomb drew pilgrims for years afterwards. The cathedral's cloisters, with their delicate fan vaulting, are the oldest of their kind and later doubled as the corridors of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. Tewkesbury Abbey, a Norman giant, looks out over the site of the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, one of the decisive clashes of the Wars of the Roses. Beatrix Potter, meanwhile, set The Tailor of Gloucester in the city's streets.
Racing, rugby and the world's greenest football club
Cheltenham is horse-racing's cathedral. Each March the Festival brings thousands to the course beneath Cleeve Hill, with the Gold Cup as its centrepiece. The town also hosts famous literature festivals and is home to GCHQ. Gloucester Rugby play at Kingsholm, where the covered terrace known as the Shed has been famous for its vocal support for decades. Rugby here is a religion of cherry and white. In the football stakes, Forest Green Rovers of Nailsworth became famous for serving only vegan food and for their drive to be the world's greenest club. Cheltenham Town and Gloucester City carry the flag in the other towns.
Inventors, poets and a vaccine
Edward Jenner of Berkeley tested the first smallpox vaccine in 1796, using cowpox. His Berkeley home, the Chantry, is now a museum, and his work is credited with saving millions of lives. Gustav Holst, who wrote The Planets, was born in Cheltenham in 1874. Laurie Lee captured the Slad valley in Cider with Rosie, and the pub he drank in, the Woolpack, still stands. The county was also a pioneer of flight: the Gloster Aircraft Company built the Meteor, the only Allied jet fighter to see combat in the Second World War. At Slimbridge, Peter Scott founded the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in 1946, which began a worldwide conservation movement.
Shin-kicking and other high-spirited games
The Cotswold Olimpicks, a rowdy sports festival started in 1612 by Robert Dover at Dover's Hill near Chipping Campden, has featured shin-kicking, a tug-of-war and a leap over a bar. Competitors stuff straw in their trousers for protection and aim kicks at one another's lower legs. Another tradition is wassailing: orchards are blessed with songs, cider and loud noises to wake the trees and scare away bad spirits. Cider and perry are still made across the Severn Vale. Then there's Highgrove, near Tetbury, the garden of King Charles III, which has put the county's gentle countryside on the world stage.