The Cotswolds has long been the go-to destination for the society set, especially when it comes to pubs: pop by Lower Oddington and you may see Lady Carole Bamford lunching at The Fox, a Daylesford-owned bolthole loved by Prue Leith; Idris and Sabrina Elba frequent The Bell in Charlbury; and Damien Hirst has been known to enjoy a pint at The Woolpack in Slad, which is owned by fellow artist, Dan Chadwick.
But now, all the great establishments of this very English pocket of countryside will have competition. Jeremy Clarkson, who lives near the well-heeled village of Chipping Norton, has shared the first glimpse of his brand new pub near Burford, after buying the business for £1 million in June.
‘We’ve accidentally opened our pub before its finished,’ admitted Jeremy on Sunday night in footage posted to social media, showing the TV personality surrounded by boxes in The Windmill, as he put together an ad-hoc party at the venue to watch England take on Spain in the Euros 2024 final. ‘It’s going to be very many weeks before we’ve got it open.’
The Windmill was dressed in patriotic England flags and bunting for the get-together, at which Jeremy Clarkson got behind the unfinished bar and pulled pints to serve to punters as they geared up for the match. One guest in attendance was Kaleb Cooper, Clarkson’s co-star on the popular series Clarkson’s Farm, who could be seen enjoying a drink and supporting his friend.
It emerged this week that Johnny Hornby, the advertising king who was chairman of Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale, is the landlord for the new pub. According to MailOnline’s Richard Eden, the ‘licence to serve alcohol was transferred to a company called Baobab Operations Ltd’, which is owned by Hornby, last month.
According to reports, the pub will feature in the new season of Clarkson’s Farm, filming for which is currently underway at Clarkson’s Diddly Squat estate. It’s expected that upcoming episodes will show Clarkson on typically wayward form as he gets to grips with being a landlord; only recently, he posted on Instagram about the dubious past of his new establishment. ‘Tell me you’ve bought a pub on a dogging site without telling me you’ve bought a pub on a dogging site,’ he said, raising his eyebrows to the camera as he held up a pair of well-worn knickers.
Clarkson’s much-loved Amazon Prime series has something of a cult following, with thousands tuning into to watch the Top Gear star and Cooper as they attempt to build a profitable estate. These days, hundreds of fans patiently queue every Saturday to buy produce from Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm Shop, and even countryside preservationists – who initially grumbled about the extra tourism – admit that the programme highlights the important realities of farming today.
Becoming an estate manager has involved some highs and lows for Clarkson, which he has documented both on the programme and on his social media. In 2022, he hosted his daughter’s wedding amid the rolling fields, which he declared to be ‘the happiest day of [his] life’. But earlier this year, he and his partner, Lisa Hogan, tearfully delivered the sad news that several of their young pigs had died. ‘It was very heartbreaking,’ Clarkson said in an interview. ‘I’d never, ever seen Lisa cry. Not once, ever – until that all started unfolding.’
It’s undoubtedly Clarkson’s impassioned approach to estate management (and all the positives and negatives that go with the job) that has made Clarkson’s Farm such a roaring success. And with The Windmill set to be a key element of season four, we’ll hope to see the TV star bringing that same attitude to landlord duties – cue serving drinks, dealing with rowdy crowds and spilling a beer keg
