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Topics: Jeremy Clarkson, Amazon Prime, Celebrity, UK News
Britt Jones
Topics: Jeremy Clarkson, Amazon Prime, Celebrity, UK News
Jeremy Clarkson has impacted many people since opening his farm, and now they’re changing how they live.
Ever since Clarkson welcomed viewers at home to visit his Cotswolds Diddly Squat farm via Amazon’s production company, things have changed in the idyllic part of the UK.
But it’s not for the good.
Calling it the 'Jeremy Clarkson effect', people have decided that tourism to the quaint area and other variables have caused the location to be less than ideal.
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Clarkson’s farm is arguably the most well-known in the country due to his Prime Video show, Clarkson’s Farm.
It all began when Clarkson took up running a farm he owned after the previous farm manager retired.
Since then, he’s gone on to expand his farm into a shop and also a pub too.
Viewers have watched eagerly as the former Top Gear host battled with the loss of animals, birthed a calf, ran after chickens and announced that his cows are suffering from an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis.
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Having amassed so many fans of the show, people come to the Cotswolds in droves to get a glimpse of the Oxfordshire farm.
However, due to the tourism, lack of schools and wealthy London buyers cashing out opportunities, local estate agents have said they’re now seeing double the amount of homes being put on the market compared to previously.
Max Boneham, a director at Chipping Norton estate agent Mark David, said the listings have boomed in the last two years.
“We have twice as many properties on the market now as two years ago,” he said. “At the start of this year, January, February, March time it was alright and suddenly it changed. There’s lots of for sale signs.”
But that’s not all, removal man Harry Winchester, 25, said there’s been more and more people needing his service in the last six months because of Clarkson’s Farm.
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He claims that’s because people are ‘leaving because of Clarkson’s Farm’.
He said: “In the last six months we have had more business in Chipping Norton. That doesn’t necessarily mean there is a massive increase in people coming or going but as a company we have been here more in the last six months than we would usually be.
“I imagine the people are leaving because of Clarkson’s Farm.”
Stating that Clarkson is not his ‘cup of tea’ and he doesn’t understand why ‘people would be moving to be closer to his establishment, I could see why people would want to get away from it though'.
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Calling Chipping Norton ‘a very quiet town’, he shared that the hordes of tourists have caused issues for the locals, like ‘clogging up the roads’.
He said: "When you have got more people you need bigger roads and traffic systems and if they’re not being put in place and the tourists are coming then it makes it very difficult for the person that lives here.
"Clarkson’s Farm is just a nuisance for them."
However, it might not actually be because of Clarkson.
Locksmith Nathan Hunt shared that there’s a lot more going on in the background than simple tourism over Clarkson’s farm.
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He said people are moving because they can sell their homes for more money if they are being bought to be rented as holiday homes.
There’s also the issue of the amenities.
He said: “Infrastructure in general, we don’t have a police station here anymore, there’s no ambulance service, there is no A&E, the hospital is massive, but most of it is empty.
“I think there is frustration over a lack of basic infrastructure in the town.”
Schools are also another issue, as he says people are moving for better educational options.
While people might point the finger at Clarkson, he says Chipping Norton just doesn’t have the amenities that other areas have, and people are moving away to find better opportunities that are both local and affordable.