Clarkson’s Farm star Jeremy Clarkson announced earlier this week that he has forked out for his lastest venture – a pub. The TV presenter turned farmer plans on selling his Hawkstone beer and cider in a Cotswold pub, when it eventually opens later this year.
The 64-year-old admitted that he had bought The Windmill, near Burford, Oxfordshire. He said that he wants his bar to have “dogs and families round the fire” while serving all-British ingredients on the menu – with a ban on fruit machines and “confusing” toilet signs.
Since the sale, Jackie Walker, 79, who opened the pub in 1983, has shared how the exchanging of hands came about. The former landlady told MailOnline: “A film crew had come into the pub and the next thing I knew someone with Clarkson knocked on the door and asked if I was interested in selling.”
She explained that she had been invited to meet with Jeremy and his partner, Lisa Hogan, at his home in the nearby village of Chadlington – where his farm Diddly Squat is based – to discuss possible terms.
Jackie added: “The first thing Jeremy said to me was I suppose you want a lot of money for this. We had met for coffee at his house, and I took over the maps of the place. He and his partner Lisa were charming, and I really liked them.
“I had not been planning to sell the place, but I wasn’t that happy with how it was being run and I am not getting any younger.”
She said that Jeremy then made her an immediate offer that was much more than she had expected – and she accepted immediately.
The former Top Gear host previously spoke of his plans to own a pub, as he said: “I decided last year that I’d like to buy a pub. I dreamt, as many men have dreamt in the past, of chatting with the regulars about nothing of any consequence and then having a Sunday roast with my family at my own table.
“I had failed to get planning permission to turn a barn on my farm into a restaurant, but I still wanted somewhere where I could sell all that we make here. And my own beer in the taps too.”
Clarkson says his pub will employ 80 people, but it may not open until later this year as extensive refurbishment work is being conducted.
He said: “It’s entirely possible that I won’t get the place mended and open until the icy hand of winter has descended, which means I’ll have 80 people to pay every week, a quagmire for a car park and no customers because – as I’ve been told time and again – people just don’t go to country pubs any more. I think there are good reasons for that.
“Fun is in short supply, and fun is what I want to put back. There will be bar billiards, there will be darts.
“And in the corner, there will be a table with my name on it. A place where I can go on a Sunday with my granddaughter for some gammon, egg and chips.”
He also gave a health update as he added: “Except for one small but annoying detail. I’ve just received word from my doctor that my liver is a bit stiff and that I really need to quit drinking for a while.”