You’d think that after being the face of not one, or two, but three hugely successful TV shows money would be the least of the 64-year-old TV presenter’s worries.
But it turns out that running the local boozer isn’t a cheap venture.
Earlier this year it was announced that Clarkson was building the success of his Prime Video show Clarkson’s Farm by purchasing a nearby pub in the Cotswolds.
This August The Farmer’s Dog opened its doors and was swiftly rushed off its feet as loyal fans filed in to sample Clarkson’s Hawkstone Lager and his take on traditional pub grub.
A home run, right?
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Maybe we’ll see Jeremy Clarkson behind the bar more often as he tries to recoup his spendings (PA/Neil Robinson)
During an interview with MailOnline, the presenter admitted the pub’s £1,000,000 price tag was a concern.
“This place is costing us a fortune. God knows if we’ll ever make our money back,” he said.
Here’s hoping Clarkson and co can pour enough £5.50 pints to earn their money back. Meanwhile if you’re feeling peckish during your visit, expect to spend around £9 on small plates and up to £19 on a full meal.
Clarkson’s Farm star Kaleb Cooper has since defended the price of food and drink at the establishment, telling Metro: “I’ve spent a little time there. It’s fantastic, it’s great, it’s really just a good traditional pub with good food, highlighting the quality of British produce.
“I don’t think there’s any difference in prices to any other pub.”
This isn’t the first time Clarkson has spoken about the costs which come along with running a pub, previously writing that he loses an average of about £10 per customer due to his determination to serve exclusively British produce.
“It’s possible that for every customer who comes through the door I’d lose about £10,” Clarkson wrote in The Times, adding that it would cost around £45 to serve a ‘fully British’ hotdog at The Farmer’s Dog.
Going 100 percent British has also been costly for the TV presenter (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
Breaking the financial impact of his all-British decision even further, he went on to explain that importing sausages from abroad would cost 18p each whereas making sausages from his own pigs would cost 74p each.
While the menu prices and costs associated with running a pub may be an adjustment for the customers and Clarkson respectively, it appears The Farmer’s Dog is good for the local economy as a nearby farmer has repurposed a field as an overflow car park, charging punters £2 to park up.
James May has finally responded after friend and former Top Gear colleague, Jeremy Clarkson, barred him from his new £1 million pub.
Clarkson opened The Farmer’s Dog in late August, spending just under £1m to secure the premises in the heart of the Cotswolds.
Situated around 20 minutes from Diddly Squat Farm, which serves as the base for hit Amazon Prime Video documentary series Clarkson’s Farm, the pub is expected to feature heavily in the fourth season of the show when it is released in 2025.
People queued around the block for the pub’s grand opening, with some arriving before 8am to secure an early pint of Hawkstone.
Inside the pub, punters can find a tractor hanging from the ceiling, almost unnervingly so. The pub is historic, with original beams and natural stone features spotted throughout the building.
One quirky addition that has left many chuckling is the barred list that Clarkson has created.
With three people on it currently, fans of Clarkson have been shocked to see that former The Grand Tour colleague May has made the list.
Clarkson, May, and Hammond have said goodbye to their working relationship (Ian West/PA Wire)
He is listed alongside the current Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, as well as the daughter of one of his close friends.
This week, May finally addressed the barring order against him at an event in London.
Speaking to journalists at the event, he issued a blunt response to Clarkson’s banning order.
As reported by MyLondon, May – while grinning – said: “Apparently, yes [I’ve been barred]. Dunno, but I wasn’t going there anyway. I’ve got my own pub.”
May took over the The Royal Oak pub in Swallowcliffe, Salisbury, in 2020. Unlike Clarkson, May owns half of his pub, which dates back to the 18th century.
And like Clarkson, he also has his own tipple. But instead of going in to the beer trade, May has created his own gin product, simply called James Gin.
May runs his own pub (Ian West/PA Wire)
On why Starmer is also banned from the pub, Clarkson branded the Labour Party as London-centric and a ‘hopeless bunch’.
“He hasn’t done much to endear himself to me yet,” Clarkson revealed. “We’ll have a look at farming. It might turn around, you never know.”
May’s comments about being banned from the pub come in the aftermath of the very final episode of The Grand Tour, moment in television that will go down in history as the last time Clarkson, May, and Richard Hammond officially work together.
The trio ran a company together, called W. Chump and Sons, but it dissolved earlier this year after all professional jobs had come to an end.
May said of the dissolution: “We are getting on a bit and everything does have to end. To be honest, we wanted to end it on our own terms. As we always used to say, we want to land it safely, not fly it into a cliff.”
Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he has banned a third person from his pub after she ‘moaned’ about her drink.
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire presenter opened his new pub, The Farmer’s Dog, at the end of August with doors swinging open just in time for a bumper bank holiday weekend.
People were left queuing from 8am to try and secure a table and pint of Hawkstone lager, with Clarkson having since defended the price of a pint at the pub after some criticised it.
When opening the watering hole, Clarkson revealed two people had been banned from setting foot inside, with them both massive names in the United Kingdom.
Well, he’s now added a third person to that barred list and it’s someone very close to home when it comes to the people that actually run the pub.
In a new video posted to The Farmer’s Dog Instagram account, Clarkson is seen adding the name of ‘Maddy Hornby’ to the banned list from the pub.
Jonathan Hornby with Meghan Markle (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
The man behind the camera – Jonathan Hornby – asks what he’s up to, with Clarkson bluntly replying: “I’m banning your daughter because she moaned after not being able to have Tabasco in her Bloody Mary. So she’s banned.”
As a crowd laughs behind the camera, Hornby ends the clip saying: “Keir Starmer, James May, Maddy Hornby. You’re all banned.”
The reason for no Tabasco being available in the pub is because Clarkson is trying to create a business which only supplies produce that has been made in Great Britain.
Clarkson is in his element running the pub (PA/Neil Robinson)
So, with Tabasco being produced in Avery Island over in Louisiana, USA, that doesn’t quite make the cut. Clarkson has been pretty stringent on the rule, too, with coffee and Coca Cola also not available.
Writing on the pub’s website about his British-only rule, he said he had ‘failed’, explaining: “I have tried my absolute hardest to make sure that every single thing you consume in The Farmer’s Dog was grown or reared by British farmers. And I have failed.
“Yes, the pork, the beef, the lamb and the venison are all British. And so is pretty much everything else. The milk, the butter, the eggs, the vegetables and the fruit. We even cook in British oils.
“But there have been some problems like, for instance, the simple G&T. You can’t have a pub that doesn’t offer a gin and tonic. But there is quinine in tonic water, and you can’t grow that in Britain.”
Clarkson with Hornby and Kaleb Cooper at the launch of Hawkstone Lager (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Hawkstone)
Hornby is one of the men who is, on paper, running The Farmer’s Dog.
Friends with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, he quit as a trustee on the board of the Prince’s charity, Sentebale, last year.
Having held the position for 11 years, he had also been chairman for the final five years of his time there.
Earlier this year, the pub licence was transferred to a company called Baobab Operations Limited, with Clarkson’s long-time mates Mark Devereux and Hornby listed as directors of the firm over on Companies House.
The pub, named The Farmer’s Dog, is expected to feature heavily in season four of Clarkson’s Farm as Jeremy looks at new ways to sell the produce he creates with his crops and other harvested products.
It comes after a third season in which the former Top Gear man looked at other ways to make money as a farmer due to the uncertainty produced by relying on arable land alone.
The pub is around 20 minutes away from Diddly Squat Farm (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
Located on the A40 in the village of Asthall, on the outskirts of Burford in the Cotswolds, The Farmer’s Dog is a 20 minute drive away from Diddly Squat Farm.
And just like the farm shop, queues are expected to be huge when the pub opens its doors to the public for the first time today (23 August) in time for the bank holiday weekend.
As part of the promo for the new pub, Clarkson and his team have put together a website.
Here, Clarkson has opened up on his self-labelled ‘failure’ when it comes to the pub. And it is all to do with keeping things British – which also explains his Coca-Cola decision.
Clarkson has put up an old Grand Tour tent to deal with demand (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
“I have tried my absolute hardest to make sure that every single thing you consume in The Farmer’s Dog was grown or reared by British farmers. And I have failed,” Jezza writes.
“Yes, the pork, the beef, the lamb and the venison are all British. And so is pretty much everything else. The milk, the butter, the eggs, the vegetables and the fruit. We even cook in British oils.
“But there have been some problems like, for instance, the simple G&T. You can’t have a pub that doesn’t offer a gin and tonic. But there is quinine in tonic water, and you can’t grow that in Britain.”
The car park for Clarkson’s new pub (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
He continues: “Sure, I could have served gin and water instead, but I didn’t think you’d enjoy it very much. Especially as, instead of a slice of lemon, you’d have been given a slice of turnip, or some potato peelings.
“You can, however, run a pub that doesn’t serve avocado or Coca-Cola, so we don’t. Instead, we offer you British fizzy drinks made with British grown fruit. And British grown tea. And before you ask, yes, the wine is British too.
“As is the Hawkstone, obviously. So, that’s it really. We’re delighted to be doing all we possibly can to support British farming and we’re delighted that you’re here to help us.”
It comes as Jeremy issued a last minute plea to his fanbase ahead of the pub opening as he looked for one final ingredient in his campaign to keep produce as British as possible.
Jeremy Clarkson’s new pub, The Farmer’s Dog, officially opened to the public last week (23 August).
Fans of The Grand Tour star queued up for hours on opening day to be among the first to check out Clarkson’s latest venture, which is approximately 20 minutes away from Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire.
The price of a pint at The Farmer’s Dog ranges between £5.50 and £6 depending on which line of Clarkson’s own Hawkstone beer or cider you’re looking to buy.
Hawkstone IPA, Hawkstone Premium, Hawkstone Hedgerow Cider, and Hawkstone Cider are all £6, with a half pint coming in at £3.10.
The Hawkstone Session lager is £5.50 a pint, alongside the Hawkstone Pils, Hawkstone Breeze, and cask ale. For a half, you’re looking at £2.90.
Among a plethora of social media reviews since the pub’s opening, some have criticised the venue’s prices.
Some fans have criticised the prices at Jeremy Clarkson’s new pub The Farmer’s Dog (PA/Neil Robinson)
One critic wrote: “Really necessary to charge those prices? Absolutely ripping people off because it’s on TV, it’s sick.”
A second added: “Now you wonder why people go to the supermarket [for their beer].”
While a third claimed: “Prices are ridiculous!”
On the pub’s opening day, Clarkson told fans: “Everything you consume in there, every single thing, even the black pepper and the sugar, was grown or reared by British farmers. Everything.”
And, after an X user quipped: “I bet you’ll need to remortgage once you’ve bought a round,” he simply replied: “It’s £5.50 for a pint.”
A fan then went on to defend the pub’s prices, saying it’s unfair to compare them to other venues due to its homegrown ethos.
They wrote: “Please stop complaining about the prices. You can’t compare them to a ‘normal’ pub, where food is sourced by huge national wholesalers.”
Clarkson has since defended the pub which offers almost exclusively British produce (PA)
But, while most of The Farmer’s Dog’s offerings are local to the UK, Clarkson has revealed an exception to the rule, writing on the pub’s website about his one ‘failures’.
“I have tried my absolute hardest to make sure that every single thing you consume in The Farmer’s Dog was grown or reared by British farmers. And I have failed,” he wrote prior to its opening.
“Yes, the pork, the beef, the lamb and the venison are all British. And so is pretty much everything else.
“But there have been some problems like, for instance, the simple G&T. You can’t have a pub that doesn’t offer a gin and tonic. But there is quinine in tonic water, and you can’t grow that in Britain.”
