Everything you need to know about Jeremy Clarkson’s pub on a ‘famous dogging site’

Radioactive farmer Jeremy Clarkson has bought a pub on what he describes as a “famous dogging ground” in the Cotswolds.

Clarkson, 64, will focus on “British produce” at the Windmill in Asthall. The store is set in five acres of grounds near posh Burford and within striking distance of Soho Farmhouse. At the time of publication, the store does not yet have a name.

The business venture follows failed attempts to open a restaurant on his 1,000-acre farm called Diddly Squat, which was made famous by his hugely popular Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm.

In his Sunday Times column, Clarkson revealed plans to run a “village pub” inspired by 1970s Yorkshire, stressing the importance of the pub industry in Britain.

Clarkson wrote that the business was dying and that about a thousand pubs were closing every year. After a long search, he found a pub that seemed suitable.

“I bought a pub. The first pub I looked at had a lot of appeal. It was a 400-year-old inn that had been an Indian restaurant and then a County Lines meth lab in recent years. But it needed too much renovation. There was even a bullet in the Britvic fizzy drink machine. So I set out to find an alternative.”

After viewing many of them – 14,000 by his own estimate – the journalist “made a deal and then discovered that there was a famous dogging place in the area.”

Clarkson paid almost £1 million for the property, provisionally named Clarkson’s Arms. The 15th-century pub and vaulted barn in Oxfordshire, which is currently closed, was until recently used as a venue for weddings and banquets.

Renovation work is set to begin soon and the former Top Gear presenter expects everything to be up and running by Christmas.

“There is still a lot of work to be done on the pub itself. For example, the cellar is too small, the gable is collapsing, the outside terrace is dangerous, the water is not suitable for drinking, the attic is full of dead rats and the toilets are illegal.”

West Oxfordshire District Council has approved plans to transform the pub into a “fun” village pub with a clubhouse, pool table, darts and dominoes.

There will be traditional food such as ham, eggs and chips and shepherd’s pies, and on Sunday there will be classic roasts. There will be Clarkson’s own Hawkestone beer on tap, but no coffee or Coca Cola.

The program also includes free beers for farmers and a forum on local mental health.

Asthall Manor, Asthall, Burford OX18 4HW, windmillvenue.com