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Great Cheese Riot of 1766

The Great Cheese Riot began October 2, 1766 at Nottingham’s Goose Fair. 

‘[In October 1766] Goose Fair was the occasion of a ‘great cheese riot’ […]. Stalls were attacked and ransacked, and cheeses distributed to the crowd. Being barrel-shaped they could easily be rolled, and soon they were being propelled down Wheeler Gate and Peck Lane. The mayor, trying desperately to intervene, stood in the middle of Peck Lane, only to be knocked over by an accelerating cheese.’
Cheese Riots Pamphlete book

There are no stamps dedicated to this event but there is a stamp of another important cheese rolling related event in the UK – the great Cheese Rolling contest in Gloucester. It’ll have to do as a surrogate today.  

Great Cheese Riot stand in Cheese Rolling, Cooper's Hill

Cheese Rolling, Cooper’s Hill
Part of Royal Mail’s 2019 Strange Customs set
Designed by NB Studio

Poor crops, food shortages, increasing prices and merchants shipping basic foods to more lucrative markets outside the UK sparked a widespread food riot in the Nottinghamshire area of England. 

Records show that cheeses at this particular market were on sale for 28–36 shillings per hundredweight. These prices were double what they had been just one week before in Coventry, and would be equivalent to £140–180 today. This meant that virtually none of the locals could afford to buy the cheese on sale at their own market, and this fact set many of them grumbling and grinding teeth.

During the fair, merchants from the Lincolnshire area bought up all the cheese to take back to their own towns, literally leaving none for the Nottingham locals. They turned a deaf ear to pleas they let some be sold at the fair, but bigger profits were to be had by shipping all the cheese out. This in turn triggered a large, violent protest against food shortages that resulted in stalls and warehouses being looted and roadblocks being set up to prevent the cheese laden merchants from leaving town.

“Cheeses were picked up and hurled at stall holders.

“This started a riot in which stalls were overturned and cheeses bowled along the ground. The mayor himself was knocked over by a flying cheese, and finally the magistrates had to call out the Dragoons [mounted soldiers], Nottingham then being a military centre.”
Cheese riots and dragoons: The complete history of Nottingham Goose Fair – Notts TV News | The heart of Nottingham news coverage for Notts TV

When the Mayor of Nottingham attempted to restore order he was run over by someone rolling a huge wheel of cheese away. Anyone arrested was quickly freed by large mobs of people who stormed the prison. 

Because cheeses at that time were sold in large wheels roughly the size and shape of a small barrel, many of the looters simply rolled the cheeses down the street — a method that resulted in the mayor himself being knocked down.

Eventually the army was called upon to help put down the revolt. Shots were fired by soldiers who couldn’t distinguish between looters and shop owners protecting their wares, resulting in one death, William Eggleston, a farmer desperately trying to protect his own cheese. Armed escorts were hired by merchants so they could move their cheese out of town. 
 
The Great Cheese Riot continued for days and rapidly spread to other towns, as people protested against the shortages and high prices until the military finally stamped out the riot.

Rioting now spread to other nearby cities, everyone angry that they couldn’t access their cheese. More warehouses were burned and looted. The unrest continued for days. Eventually, the military restored order, and the riots ended. For a few years after the riot, an armed guard accompanied any cargo filled with cheese just in case someone decided to restart the violence.

The True Story Of The Great Cheese Riot

2024’s stamp featured Richard III, last of the  Plantagenets.

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