Evie Lucas
Last month, the small village of Brockworth in Gloucester welcomed over 5,000 visitors – some coming from as far as Australia – for one thing: to watch 30 people tumble down a hill after a wheel of runaway cheese. This unique event, at least 600 years old, is still going strong, despite multiple attempts to shut it down after safety concerns.
Britain is full of odd traditions, and Gloucester’s extreme sport is just one of many curious customs you’ll find hidden in the nation’s nooks and crannies. Read on for our definitive list!
Brockworth’s renowned festival is called ‘cheese rolling’. The idea is simple: contestants assemble at the top of a 200-yard hill to chase a huge wheel of double Gloucester cheese to the bottom. The first person over the finish line – conscious or unconscious - wins the cheese: Notably, Delaney Irving managed to win the 2023 race after being knocked out on her way down.
Despite its silliness, Cheese Rolling qualifies as an extreme sport and comes with an official warning against injuries. Originally, contestants had to physically catch the cheese to win, but this was deemed too dangerous and difficult. For many, in fact, the competition can quickly go downhill: In 1997, a whopping 33 people were treated for injuries, ranging from grazes to broken bones.
This year’s winner sums up the festival in just a few sentences: ‘I don’t think you can train for it can you? It’s just being an idiot’.
Every year on August Bank Holiday weekend, in a bog just outside of Wales’ smallest town, people gather to watch the World Bog Snorkelling Championships. This messy sport involves mud-spattered contestants swimming two lengths of a 60-metre peat bog, wearing a snorkel and flippers. The best part of the competition, though, is the ‘costumes’ race, during which people dressed in a costume of their choice – from full Elvis attire to rubber horse masks – take to the bog. One bold contestant even brought his ironing board, calling it ‘extreme ironing’.
The sport, unsurprisingly, was conceived in a local pub. In 1976, two businessmen wanted to attract more visitors to the town, and the answer was Bog Snorkelling. Despite how niche it is, the event has attracted a lot of attention: you’ll find it listed on the Lonely Planet’s ‘World’s Top Must Do Experiences’.
There are two things every mayor of high Wycombe does after their election: celebrate, then get weighed. In a small town in Buckinghamshire, every new mayor must be publicly weighed in a ceremony that dates all the way back to the Middle Ages. The mayor is seated on a special ‘weighing chair’ and weighed with brass scales from the 1700s (the original chair can be found on display at the Wycombe Museum). The whole process is then repeated a year later.
Although the origins of this strange tradition are not entirely known, some believe that it was originally practised to check if the new mayor was indulging a bit too much on taxpayers’ money. Others have suggested that the weighing could show whether the person was fit enough for the role. Either way, the ceremony allowed the public to weigh in on the mayor’s legitimacy to lead.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to eat stinging nettles?
You don’t have to imagine it in the village of Marshwood, where people gather every year to find out who can consume the most stinging nettles in one hour. There are only three rules: you cannot bring your own nettles, you cannot vomit, and the only liquids allowed are water and beer. You may be wiser choosing the latter, however, since stinging nettles are covered in tiny poisonous hairs that embed themselves in your skin. Delicious.
This particularly painful tradition has existed since the 1980s, when two farmers fought over who had the longest nettles in their yard. It was decided that, as punishment, the loser would eat a whole stalk of them.
Intrigued? Explore more of the UK’s eccentricities on one of our immersive language courses in London or Eastbourne.
Halloween has long been associated with indulgence: every year, supermarkets stock up on spooky editions of our favourite snacks and children go door to door in the hopes of filling up their pockets with chocolate eyeballs and candy pumpkins.
Crisp air and low-hanging mist; leaves that crunch underfoot; grey days illuminated by explosions of red, orange, and gold.
You’ve studied the grammar books, memorised lists of vocabulary, and listened to hours of audio.
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