Hundreds of punters queued outside the Farmer's Dog in Oxfordshire on Friday as Jeremy Clarkson opened his new pub, bucking the trend of closures amid high energy costs and Covid fallout. The venue, off the A40 between Burford and Witney, drew crowds from early morning, with some arriving four hours before the midday opening.
The former Top Gear presenter, 64, burst out of the Cotswold stone pub at noon, throwing his arms in the air and declaring: “We’re open” to cheers, before adding: “Also, we’re not late”. He told the crowd that everything consumed inside was grown or reared by British farmers, apart from the quinine in the tonic.
The pub is a lateral move for Clarkson, with some produce from his Diddly Squat farm, featured in his Amazon Prime show Clarkson’s Farm. He said he had looked at 40 pubs before choosing the site, formerly known as the Windmill, and noted: “There’s no villages to piss off here.”
Inside, customers pass a grand piano with a stainless steel vintage tractor suspended from the ceiling. The bar serves beer from Clarkson’s brewery, Hawkstone, at £5.50 to £6.50 a pint. Food includes gammon steak with bubble and squeak, Lancashire hotpot, and steak pie with mash and gravy at £19, with a vegetarian crumble at £15.
Among the first in line were Blake Jones, 41, and Lauren Hanly, 34, from Gloucester, who left at 6am. Jones said they had visited the farms and brewery, adding: “So this was his next little venture that we wanted to come and sort of give our support to.” Jack Dinsdale, 23, who serves with the Royal Logistics Corps, said: “It’s just good that someone’s finally started promoting farming, showing how important it is.”
