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Louise Thomas
Editor
Hundreds of people spent their Friday mornings queuing to be the first punters inside Jeremy Clarkson’s new pub, The Farmer’s Dog.
The former Top Gear presenter paid less than £1m for the pub, formerly known as The Windmill, in Asthall, near Burford in Oxfordshire.
The popular reception echoes the success of Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm shop, which attracts tourists from across the country due to its prominence in his Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm.
Punters had been queueing outside the newly-opened pub since 8am this morning (23 August), until Clarkson opened the doors at midday and greeted them inside. Lauren Hanly and Blake Jones, a couple from Gloucestershire, were the first to arrive and queue for the full four hours.
Friendly faces from Clarkson’s Amazon series, Kaleb Cooper, Gerald Cooper and Charlie Ireland, were also there to welcome fans indoors.
Asked by reporters why he wanted to open a pub, he said it was the next best thing after he couldn’t open a restaurant on his farm.
“We wanted to have that restaurant on the farm last year and we couldn’t, and pubs, they are all for sale.
“So, we thought instead of building a restaurant we would buy a pub.”
Clarkson has faced backlash over the years from locals in West Oxfordshire when he has attempted to expand his Diddly Squat farm project.
Some residents were concerned that the pub’s existence would cause local traffic issues because its located next to the busy A40. But Oxfordshire County Council has said its been working closely with Clarkson and his team to reduce the likelihood of traffic issues ahead of the opening.
But the presenter described the whole process of becoming a pub landlord as “terribly stressful” and said there are many inconveniences that “you don’t think about”.
Clarkson explained that he and his team experienced their first run-in with a nuisance customer at the soft opening on Wednesday when someone “smashed the lavatory door”.
"When you go to a festival and go in the bogs, you think, does your bathroom at home look like this? How can you break a bathroom door?" he said.
Clarkson said he had tried the gammon, parsley sauce and bubble n squeak from the menu.
"The menu changes – it’s whatever we’ve got. There’s no Coca-Cola, no coffee, other pubs do coffee, Cornish tea. We do British food.
Clarkson said he looked at 40 pubs in the process of deciding, but opted for The Windmill due to it being in a quiet area, and having a large car park for visitors.
"We looked at 40 pubs. We needed some very special things like a big car park, a big car park and lots of parking, and no little roads to get to it.
"There’s no villagers to piss off here. There’s no one to annoy. It’s a good spot."
He also admitted that he doubled the business venture would be profitable due to the cost of the overhead costs.
“I’m not very good at business plans and I haven’t done one," he said. “I do know this. If I take one of our pigs and we slaughter it and butcher it and we turn it into sausages and we sell it here, it costs us 74p. If I buy imported pig meat it is 18p. So, something is wrong with the food system in this country.”
Clarkson described the impact of his new pub on British farming as a "tiny pin prick", but added: "If everyone does it, if all the farmers get together and buy a pub – as you can get a pub for chicken feed these days – it might work.
"If this works, it is a cooperative of farmers we have formed, it might work, it might not, I’m the trailblazer.
"At least Amazon pay me to find out..."
Clarkson’s Farm is often praised for highlighting the problems facing the agricultural sector, as the TV star and his farming team learn about the financial and environmental challenges as they go along.
"I got into farming and found it is really difficult,” Clarkson said. “I’m not saving farming, I’m just reporting on it. I’ve been doing it five years and it is really difficult.”
With additional reporting from PA.
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