Jeremy Clarkson, the 64-year-old car enthusiast turned farmer, has announced that he is willing to give away free pints at his newly acquired pub in Oxfordshire, but only to specific people. Clarkson purchased The Windmill pub near Burford for “less than £1 million” after failing to secure planning permission to turn a barn on his farm into a restaurant. This pub, located about 20 minutes from his Diddly Squat Farm, is expected to be used for filming in the upcoming fourth season of his Amazon Prime series, “Clarkson’s Farm.”
In his column for The Sunday Times, Clarkson explained his motivation behind buying the pub, stating, “Owning a pub these days is even more daft than owning a farm, but there’s something inside a man that causes him to think, when he has the means, it’d be nice to buy the village boozer.” He added that he wanted a place to sell products from his farm, including his own beer on tap.
Clarkson revealed that he plans to offer free pints to farmers when his pub opens next year, aiming to create a space that serves as a mental health forum on wet weekdays. “I also wanted a room I could turn into a clubhouse, which, on wet weekdays, would provide a mental health forum and a free pint for the nation’s farmers,” he continued.
Chef Tom Kerridge, owner of the two-star Michelin pub The Hand and Flowers in Buckinghamshire, commented on the challenges of running a pub, expressing hope that Clarkson’s endeavor will highlight these difficulties. He said, “Even if it’s busy and packed on a Saturday night, the profit margin is very, very small, particularly when you’re a wet-led (drink-led) pub. You need to be busy on Monday and Tuesday lunchtime, not just a weekend, and the pressures that come into that business are absolutely huge.”
Kerridge also praised Clarkson for raising awareness about the challenges of British farming through his show, hoping that he will similarly shed light on the struggles of running a pub. “What he did for British farming, he showed actually how difficult it was and how hard it was to make it work. This will be another opportunity for us and the rest of the UK to see how difficult it is to run a pub because he will come up against the issues and the problems that there are and talk about it and use his voice for good reason.”
Clarkson’s new venture is eagerly anticipated, and it remains to be seen how his pub will fare in the competitive hospitality industry.
