Jeremy Clarkson has revealed how his Cotswolds pub The Farmer's Dog keeps its lawn lush and green during the recent UK drought. Aerial images showed the lawn at the pub looking healthy while surrounding fields were parched brown.
The Clarkson's Farm star, 61, explained he has a borehole, after criticism was aimed at other celebrities for how they were beating the hosepipe ban. He said: “You dig a hole maybe 100m into the ground, put a pump in it and water comes out. Water that’s not subjected to government interference. That’s what we did at my pub.”
Borehole details and celebrity lawns
Boreholes are deep shafts drilled into the earth, can cost tens of thousands of pounds to install, and can pump up to ten thousand litres a day. Clarkson revealed the trick while discussing the state of 81-year-old Sir Rod Stewart’s lawn in Essex.
He explained: “An aerial photograph of the lush green lawns outside Rod Stewart’s mansion prompted the nation’s bitter people to ask: ‘How did you manage that, mate, when there’s a hosepipe ban in force?’ Could it be, perhaps, that Rod probably has a borehole?”
There is no evidence that the singer or Clarkson has broken any rules. The Daily Star contacted Jeremy, West Oxfordshire Council and Thames Water for comment.
Ketchup dispute at The Farmer's Dog
The news of Clarkson's borehole comes after condiment brand Condimaniac revealed a dispute over their bottle's labelling meant it would stop providing sauces to The Farmer's Dog. Boss Kier Kemp said on social media: “We're not selling 100% British ketchup to Jeremy Clarkson's pub The Farmer's Dog anymore. The reason is quite nuanced but ultimately what it boils down to is we don't like to white-label our products.”
Kemp added: “We didn't expect the videos to do so well and we definitely didn't expect it to catch the eye of Jeremy Clarkson and his pub. Ultimately, though, people go to The Farmer's Dog to buy Diddly Squat stuff, not Condimaniac, so it made sense to have that branding on the bottle.”
Kemp said Condimaniac did occasionally produce white-label sauces, including one-off projects for Download Festival and Octopus Energy, but said it was different when supplying regular customers because the company was taking responsibility for the reputation of a product which did not carry its name. The ketchup was created after Clarkson struggled to find a version meeting his rule that all food served at The Farmer's Dog should be produced entirely in Britain.
