Detour Pit Stop #127: The Farmer’s Dog, Oxfordshire, UK
Whether you’re a fan of cars or cows, Jeremy Clarkson’s Oxfordshire pub is well worth a visit – but you’ll need to book ahead.
It’s Sunday lunchtime and the Farmer’s Dog is heaving. Every table in the restaurant is full, people are waiting five deep at the bar and, in the old Grand Tour tent outside there’s a roaring trade in everything from Diddly Squat Farm sausages to candles that apparently smell like Clarkson’s testes.
“It’s like this on a Tuesday afternoon as well,” he says, seemingly quite surprised at his latest venture’s success.
Clarkson has very generously invited me and a bunch of former Top Gear Magazine pals to tuck into the Sunday carvery, sample the Hawkstone lager and English wine.
Everything served here is sourced as locally as possible, with Clarkson’s Farm – and a local co-operative of other farms – providing meat and veg, while even condiments like pepper come (at much greater cost) from within the UK. That makes it extra hard for a man notoriously bad at maths to turn a profit, but “We’re almost breaking even,” he tells me. It would certainly be easier if souvenir hunters didn’t walk off with around 400 pint glasses a week, he adds.
Clarkson bought the old Windmill pub, which was, he claims, best known as a hot spot for dogging, not dogs. “I found a g-string in a tree recently,” confesses Clarkson. Since taking over he’s invested significantly in doing it up, hiring some 80 staff and serving up genuinely delicious food and drink.
I have a very generous plate of roasted Diddly Squat pork (“I gave birth to that pig,” he says) and beef from a neighbouring farm, together with crunchy roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, Yorkshire pudding and sides of cabbage and cauliflower cheese. You certainly get a proper portion. Then there’s apple crumble and ice cream. All delicious.
The Stourbridge red gets a fabulous reception from the Top Gear crew, while the 0.3% Hawkstone Spa tastes like a lager should. “We brew it as normal and take the alcohol out,” Clarkson explains, before adding, “No, I don’t how they do it.”
The pub is capacious and charmingly decorated out with occasional nods to the TV show, from an old tractor hanging from the rafters to a hand-painted mural. Outside there’s a huge deck with glorious views over the rolling farmland, plus a stall selling ‘cow juice’, plus a burger and kebab van for those who couldn’t manage to get a booking.
You’re sure to find plenty of exotic cars in the car park – perhaps even Jeremy’s Jaaag – but you may well be directed to the overflow spaces in a neighbouring farmer’s field, so pack your wellies just in case. “The farmer is delighted,” says Clarkson. “He makes 200 quid a day out of that field which is more than he could ever make farming it.”
Clarkson’s Farm has really focused attention on just how hard it is for Britain’s farmers to make a living and it’s only through the support of Amazon and his additional ventures that Clarkson himself is able to make a go of it.
So, before I leave, I make sure to pick up a couple of packs of Diddly Squat smoked bacon. If you’re pit stopping here as part of a Cotswolds’ Detour I recommend you do the same.
ROADBOOK
CLASS: PUB
NAME: The Farmer’s DoG
ROUTE: A40, Burford OX18 4HJ
COUNTRY: UK
Whether you’re a fan of cars or cows, Jeremy Clarkson’s Oxfordshire pub is well worth a visit – but you’ll need to book ahead.