The name of Jeremy Clarkson’s pub, which he bought for £1m, was inspired by an unfortunate discovery about the surrounding area.
The Grand Tour star, whose Prime Video series Clarkson’s Farm is one of the service’s most-streamed TV shows, made the purchase after finding success with his now-famous, 1000-acre Diddly Squat farm and accompanying shop, which is run by the TV personality’s wife, Lisa Hogan.
Clarkson bought the land in 2008 and, after the villager who ran the farm retired in 2019, he decided to see if he could run it himself. In July, it was revealed the 64-year-old would extend his empire by taking over rural country pub The Windmill in Asthall – a “village boozer” on five acres of countryside near Burford.
The purchase of his pub, which he has called The Farmer’s Dog, features in the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm – and the meaning of the boozer’s name is revealed in episode four.
Clarkson is shown reading through documentation received from the lawyer handling the pub’s purchase, and he learns that the surrounding Oxfordshire area is regularly frequented by people who enjoy having sex in semi-secluded public spaces.
The episode shows Clarkson discover that the entirety of the pub’s garden area is designated by the council as “a picnic site” – a detail that he said became “blurred and confusing” when he continued to read through the file.
After calling his lawyer, Clarkson is told that the site previously attracted some “unwanted and anti-social behaviour” that “might put you off eating your picnic”.
When Clarkson asked if this activity was centred around the public toilets, the lawyer said: ‘We have happened upon some quite interesting photographs which capture certain graffiti and certain goings-on.”
Upon inspecting the area, Clarkson discovers the activity was still going on after finding underwear strewn about in trees.
Clarkson first revealed the dogging revelation in a video shared on Instagram that saw him standing outside the pub, holding up a stick with a pair of black and pink knickers dangling off the end. He wrote: “Tell me you bought a pub on a dogging site without telling me you bought a pub on a dogging site.”
He also said he was surprised that West Oxfordshire district council approved his plans to transform the “famous dogging site” that is “full of dead rats” into a “fun” village watering hole.
He is now producing a TV series showcasing his efforts to be a pub landlord – much in the same way Clarkson’s Farm shows his travails of running Diddly Squat.
Earlier this year, Clarkson shared behind-the-scenes details of Clarkson’s Farm, revealing how the idea of free-grazing his pigs – a rare breed called Sandy and Black – ended in disaster.
Clarkson had been warned by land agent Charlie Ireland that it wouldn’t be as simple a task as he was thinking, stating: “Pigs need round-the-clock care.”
The TV star learnt this the hard way when many of the piglets died, with some of them being crushed accidentally by their mothers. In fact, so many piglets died that it left those working on the show feeling distressed.
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