Jeremy Clarkson makes huge new career change 'that everyone advised against'
Jeremy Clarkson has made a massive new career change in a move that he says 'everyone advised against'.
The former Top Gear presenter has already diversified his career in recent years after leaving the BBC motoring show and with The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video coming to an end very soon.
Top of the list is, of course, farming. Documented through Prime Video's hit series Clarkson's Farm, his exploits as a farmer have been documented for the last five years ever since he took over Diddly Squat Farm.
Advert
With filming for season four of the documentary series now under way, following the immediate success of season three after its release earlier this year, all eyes are on what we might get in the next instalment of the show that has made the likes of Kaleb Cooper and Gerald Cooper (no relation) household names.
Well, one major plot line might just have been exposed by Clarkson himself after he revealed he has embarked on a major new business venture.
Having previously shown a major interest in owning a pub near his Diddly Squat Farm, he has finally taken the plunge.
In his most recent column for The Sunday Times, Jezza revealed he has bought a watering hole for less than £1 million in the heart of the Cotswolds.
And with it round the corner from his 1,000-acre farm, we're sure it is set to become the latest stop off for those visiting the Diddly Squat site, which has become a tourism attraction in its own right.
The pub is The Windmill in Asthall, just outside the town of Burford. For non-locals, it is about a 20 minute drive away from the farm shop which is still seeing lengthy queues just to get inside.
"They're closing at the rate of more than a thousand a year. You would have to be mad to buy one. Insane," Clarkson writes. "So I’ve bought a pub."
He added: "Why, in the face of such overwhelming evidence that pubs are no longer viable, did I persevere? As one friend put it - 'Owning a pub these days is even more daft than owning a farm. What’s next? You buying a cinema?'.
"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."
Clarkson said he 'obviously' couldn't buy his actual local with the 'locals setting fire to him' if he even dreamt of it. Ultimately, following the forced closure of his farm restaurant, Clarkson says he wants somewhere where he can directly sell what Diddly Squat produces - which includes Hawkstone lager and cider.
In a rather unique twist, Clarkson revealed there was a local dogging site near to the pub - something he only discovered after completing on the deal.
"So I went to see West Oxfordshire District Council, expecting no help at all, and, blow me down, it was very happy to close the dogging site. So I was in business. My dream would become a reality," he said.
Clarkson is now looking for a general manager, an operations director, and a bar manager, with roughly 80 people all in all on the pub's payroll. A huge boost to the local jobs market.
No opening date has been mooted by Clarkson yet, saying he has 'much work to do'. Posting on the Diddly Squat Farm Shop Instagram account, he said: "In case you missed it. I’ve bought a pub, even though everyone advised against it.
"It’s about 20 minutes away from the shop, with staggering views. We have much work to do, so will let you know when we can open."
Topics: Celebrity, Clarkson's Farm, Entertainment, Food And Drink, Jeremy Clarkson, Money, Pubs, UK News, Business
Tom Earnshaw