The popularity of Clarkson’s Farm has seen thousands of people descend on Diddly Squat Farm Shop during the busiest periods
The continued booming popularity of Clarkson’s Farm has seen thousands of people descend on the real life Diddly Squat Farm Shop every single day. But be prepared to wait to get inside.
Season three of Clarkson’s Farm arrived on Amazon Prime Video in early May, with it taking us back to the heart of the Cotswolds for yet another outing of Jeremy Clarkson’s attempts to be a full-time farmer after a career spent in television and journalism.
A household name in the United Kingdom for his span as the face of Top Gear, Jeremy took to farming back in 2019 after taking on Diddly Squat Farm full-time; a 1,000-acre plot he’s actually owned since way back in 2008.
The show and its truthful insight in to British farming has been recognised across the country, with politicians even bringing in new laws thanks to the efforts of Jeremy himself.
One of the largest sagas across all three seasons of Clarkson’s Farm has been the now iconic farm shop, run by Jeremy’s partner Lisa Hogan.
Season three saw the Diddly Squat team score a huge win against West Oxfordshire District Council in its plans for the farm, with the farm shop allowed to stay put for years to come.
It also saw expanded car parking facilities to try and cope with the demand placed upon the farm shop by those wanting to browse what you can buy inside.
Let’s just say, it can get really busy.
We mean properly so, no exaggerating here.
Check out the view for one recent weekend in May since the release of the third season:
But exactly how long does it take to get inside the shop to have a browse?
Over on the Clarkson’s Farm Reddit page, fans of the show have been giving the answer to that question.
One user asked: “My daughter and I have been watching the series and since we don’t live an unreasonable distance from Chadlington, we thought we might visit the shop. On the show however it always looks really busy – does anyone know if this is the case week to week or does it just happen to be busy when the cameras are on?”
Responses were mixed. But in saying that, still gave a good guesstimate of the best time to turn up.
“Don’t know about other times but we went on a weekday in early September and waited about two hours in line,” said one person.
A second posted: “Average wait time appears to be between two and three hours to visit and the shop usually ends up empty at the end of the day with no stock inside. You are more likely to see just normal staff workers there then people from the show as they hire a lot of staff. But on rare occasions you may see someone.”
And a third said: “I live about 10 minutes away so popped in on Friday… we gave up on trying to get in. It was probably a good 20 to 30 minute wait just to get food, the shop line was even longer and slower moving. This was around 11am on a weekday.”
Others offered their more positive experiences at the farm shop, and with that, advice on the better times to try and visit.
“Try to be there around the time they open and the line is much, much more reasonable.” one said.
Another wrote: “We did a random Wednesday at 9.30am. Already 10 cars in the car park and it was getting busy when we left around 10.30am.”
And a third posted: “I’ve been three or four times, once even on a weekend. Not waited more than 15 minutes to get in. It’s probably mayhem at the moment though.”
Clear as day then. Expect big queues if you go in the aftermath of a new season being released, on weekends, and if the weather is nice. It might be best to hedge your bets on heading over for shop opening on a week day.
