On your marks...! Dozens of competitors lug heavy blocks of cheese as they race ... trends now
Dozens of racers have hauled huge blocks of cheese over their shoulders as they ran up a hill made famous by an iconic 1973 advert for Hovis.
They were cheered on while scrambling up Gold Hill, a steep cobbled street in Shaftesbury in Dorset - immortalised by the ad directed by future Oscar nominee and knight Sir Ridley Scott.
Each cheese block being lugged was 14in in diameter, weighed 55lb and needed 500 pints of milk to make.
Crowds braved the rain as they huddled under umbrellas while encouraging the runners along the 72m-long route.
The record time for completing the course stands at 15 seconds, in the event which forms part of the Shaftesbury Food and Drink Festival.
Competitors fought to the finish at Gold Hill in Dorset as they lugged heavy blocks of cheese over the finishing line at the site made famous by a 1973 advert for Hovis bread
Crowds of onlookers cheered on the competitors at Gold Hill in Shaftesbury today
Spectators braved the rain as the lined the steep cobbled street immortalised in the Seventies advert directed by future film-maker Ridley Scott
The race was the brainchild of cheesemonger Charlie Turnbull, who was inspired by local lore about medieval brewers, butchers, cheesemakers and millers.
They reputedly raced to be first to the Shaftesbury Abbey gates so their goods would be chosen by the Abbess for her High Table and then fetch the highest price.
The Hovis commercial, voted Britain's all-time favourite TV advert in 2006, featured a young bakery boy struggling to push his bike with a basket full of bread to the last house on his round.
The ad, soundtracked by a brass band version of Dvorak's New World Symphony, was also chosen as the most iconic in 2019 - beating Cadbury's 2017 promo featuring a someone in a gorilla costume drumming along to In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins.
The Hovis clip was meant to depict a northern industrial town but was actually shot in the quaint southern market town of Shaftesbury.
The location is still known to many as 'Hovis Hill' and is a popular tourist attraction.
The old cottages and cobbled street on the beloved hill are framed by the Melbury Downs in the background - and just yards away is Benedictine nunnery Shaftesbury Abbey, founded in AD888.
The setting was also used in the 1967 film version of Thomas Hardy's classic Far From The Madding Crowd, starring Julie Christie, Terence Stamp and Alan Bates.
Today's cheese-hauling race up the hill was part of the Shaftesbury Food and Drink Festival
Each cheese block was 14in in diameter, weighed 55lb and needed 500 pints of milk to make
The race was the idea of cheesemonger Charlie Turnbull, who was inspired by local lore about medieval brewers, butchers, cheesemakers and millers
Two years ago, though, visitors hoping to enjoy the view there were disappointed as the countryside scenery was allegedly
