Beware of mud

Today is Cheese Rolling day at Cooper's Hill but the organisers are warning that the only car park is waterlogged and are advising people "to park some distance away and walk to the event, or even postpone your visit and come next year". Oh dear.

Cooper's Hill is on the sharp edge of the Cotswold Hills a couple of miles east of the City of Gloucester. Most of it is wooded but there are occasional fine views between the tress up the Severn Vale towards the Malvern Hills and across Gloucester (with its Cathedral which boasts the finest tower of its type in the world) towards May Hill and the Black Mountains in Wales. Normally the hill's peace is disturbed only by a few strollers on the many paths which cross its slopes or by more serious walkers on the Cotswold Way which passes through. But for one day a year it's noisier as it's taken over by the cheese rollers on its steepest and clearest slope. Why do they do it? Because they do......