Surely English people wouldn’t chase a 3kg wheel of cheese down a very steep hill and call it a sport…

We’re sorry to say that yes, this actually happens. Every late May bank holiday the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling contest takes place on the precipitous Cooper’s Hill in the Cotswolds. No one knows for sure when this Cheese Rolling tradition began but some sources believe it dates back about 600 years. Participants must be over 18 to race down Cooper's Hill, but other than that no registration is needed - you can just turn up and enter. But you will need to bring your “I am mad’ certificate from your doctor.

The 180-metre hill at Cooper’s Hill is so steep (with a 1:2 gradient, it's the steepest slope in Gloucestershire Cotswolds) that the laws of physics means the cheese wheel always wins - no one has ever got close to catching it, despite some valiant attempts- and that it is not physically possible for a human being to remain upright at any stage.

So the cheese wheel gets a lot out of the competition, but it remains unclear what is in it for the humans: they always lose, they break a lot of bones, many contestants are literally carried away unconscious - and the Emergency Services helicopter based in nearby Tewkesbury has not been able to take a lunch break that day since 1826.

We English are known for our eccentricities and we can strongly recommend, if you want to watch a tumbling mass of humanity falling down a hill, get over to GL3 4SB on the second May bank holiday, and witness the thing we do best in this country…