Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Hundreds queue for Clarkson pub
TV STAR Jeremy Clarkson believes running a pub in the current economic climate will be tough as hundreds of people queued for hours to get inside his new business venture on its opening day.
The pub in Asthall, near Burford in Oxfordshire, opened to the public again after being renamed The Farmer’s Dog. Around 300 people had formed a queue snaking around the car park and large beer garden to wait for the doors to be opened.
On the stroke of midday, the former Top Gear presenter appeared and announced to loud cheers from the crowd: “We’re open.” And holding up his phone to show the time, Clarkson added: “We’re also not late. Welcome everybody.”
He was accompanied by his girlfriend, Lisa Hogan, and fellow stars from his hit Amazon show Clarkson’s Farm – Kaleb Cooper, Charlie Ireland and Gerald Cooper.
As people filed into the former Windmill pub, Clarkson said selling British-only produce was expensive and “doubted” it would turn a profit.
“I’m not very good at business plans and I haven’t done one,” he told reporters. “I do know this. If I take one of our pigs and we slaughter it and butcher it and we turn it into sausages and we sell it here, it costs us 74p. If I buy imported pig meat, it is 18p. So, something is wrong with the food system in this country.”
Clarkson described the impact of his new pub on British farming as a “tiny pin prick”, but added: “If everyone does it, if all the farmers get together and buy a pub – as you can get a pub for chicken feed these days – it might work. If this works, it is a co-operative of farmers we have formed, it might work, it might not, I’m the trailblazer. At least Amazon pay me to find out...”
The popularity of his Amazon show, about his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat farm in the Cotswolds, sparked interest from tourists in seeking out the broadcaster’s produce.