What kind of cheese is used in England's famed “Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake”?

Every spring in the village of Brockworth, England, locals and tourists gather for an unusual competition: the Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake.

During the annual event, contestants chase a nine-pound wheel of Double Gloucester some 200 yards (183 m) down steep Cooper’s Hill, often injuring themselves, and others, in the process. Whoever crosses the finish line first or (even better, but less likely) catches the cheese, wins bragging rights and the round of Double Gloucester.

Two possible origins have been proposed for the strange ritual. The first claims that it evolved from a requirement for maintaining grazing rights on the common. The second possibility is pagan origins. It is thought that bundles of burning brushwood were once rolled down the hill to represent the birth of the New Year after winter. One tradition which supports the second theory, is the traditional scattering of buns, biscuits and sweets at the top of the hill by the Master of Ceremonies, prior to the start of the race.

Although the exact origins of the tradition may not be known, it is known to date back to at least the early 1800s. The first written evidence of cheese rolling was found in a message written to the Gloucester town crier in 1826; even then it seems the event was a long-standing tradition.

No matter the origin, its got to be one of the strangest uses of cheese in the world. In 1993, fifteen people were injured, four of them seriously, chasing cheese down the hill.