Visitors and fans queued for more than an hour to visit the reopening of Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm Shop on Saturday (March 1).
The shop, which sells produce made on the former Top Gear presenter’s farm in Chadlington, had been closed for two months for unknown reasons. Its reopening was advertised on the store’s Instagram page, to delight from fans across the country and world.
Many of the people attending on Saturday first became interested in the farm through Clarkson’s Amazon Prime series about day-to-day life on the farm, featuring a host of beloved characters including farmer Kaleb Cooper.
Visitors came from far and wide, including Spain and India, to get a glimpse of the countryside and items available. They were not deterred by long wait-times and queued for up to an hour and a half to enter the tiny shop and look around.
The infamous £200 pies that stirred up controversy last year were absent from this year’s selection, but smaller pork pies were on sale for £7.20.
“Jeremy’s” sausages and bacon were available, well as “Diddly” eggs for £4.20, a range of cheeses, homemade pesto and pates and milkshakes and homemade apple juice from Clarkson’s orchard. Farmer’s hand soap was on sale for £6.80 and little sheep figurines for £6.50.
Greetings cards displaying Clarkson and fan-favourite farmer Cooper were available, as were condiments and sweet treats. Cow juice vodka was sold for £35 and honey-infused spirits and Le Pop sparkling wine were available. Raw honey from Clarkson’s beehives was sold for £15 and bread and pastries for up to £5.95. Tongue-in-cheek candles called “This smells of my bollocks” and “drive perfume” were available for £22 and £38 respectively.
Outside, a “cow juice” milk dispenser was available, providing fresh, pasteurised milk through a little door, while nearby, pipes were covered in stickers advertising local farms, businesses and events.
Anouska Goulding, 25, came from Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire with her friend Emily Roberts, 25. Miss Goulding, a lash tech, said she was anticipating a more rural change of scenery from her hometown and a “wholesome” atmosphere.
She said: “We watch the show. My boyfriend loves it and he’s so jealous that I am here today. He’s gone skiing, so we thought we would have a girly weekend. And I was like: ‘Well, if I have a girly weekend, I’m going to go to Diddly Squat.
“This is my first time [visiting]. I think it will be nice and fun, the weather is lovely too. I love [Clarkson]. I think Kaleb’s really funny as well. And I think, bless them, they tried hard and some of it didn’t really work out, did it? But it’s nice to see they did a good job.”
Ms Roberts, who works at a further education college, added: “It’s nice to see the background of the farm.”
Sarah Drayton, 46, and Michael Tustin, 47, were also visiting for the first time from Worcestershire. Ms Drayton said: “We have been watching it on the television. I just like everything, it’s just brilliant. It’s really hard to pick a favourite on the show but probably Kaleb. I just think he’s really funny, he’s really light-hearted, the bond with Jeremy and Kaleb is really funny. The countryside is lovely.”
They found out the shop was reopening via Instagram and said they knew they had to come. Mr Tustin, a gardener, added: “It was about an hour to get here. Our area isn’t rural, so it’s completely different to here.”
Angharad Thomas, a teaching assistant from West Wales, said: “This is our first time. We are down on holiday here. We called in before we go home, as they’re opening today for the first time. We watch the show – it’s a brilliant programme, it’s got a bit of everything, laughter and just shows the farming community. It’s important. [Clarkson] has got a high profile to get the message across to the public and just to show how tough farming can be.”
Her husband Eurig added: “It shows [we have] to back British farming, because British farming’s going through a tough time at the moment. The government is not supportive. At the end of the day, it’s the British farmers who put the food on people’s tables, it’s not [Keir] Starmer that’s doing it. I work on a dairy and beef farm. We have 200 dairy cows and the other farm has 700 beef cows. All farmers find it tough at the moment.”
Liyzie Wood, 37, of Little Rissington, ran a stall for her dog treat business Dibbles Nibbles. She sold a variety of animal parts for dogs to chew on, including rabbit ears, duck necks and antlers. Ms Wood has been selling her produce at Diddly Squat for around a year and a half and said sales were good.
She said she began the business by buying stock in but when she started coming to Diddly Squat, she said it had to be made by herself so she would source the products from abattoirs and used her friend’s cafe to prepare it.
She said it was “terrible” when the shop closed down. “For most of us that come and do pop-ups, this is our main place to come, so January and February were not fun for any of us. But it was okay.
“They got in touch with us and asked us to put the dates back in for this year. We all love coming here. You’ve got the epicentre of everyone, all different people. There’s such a vast audience – they’ve come from everywhere.
“They come from America, Canada – they fly over specifically to visit. I’ve not met Jeremy but I’ve met Lisa [Hogan, Clarkson’s partner] and she’s lovely.
She said the stall had been busy. “It was busier than last year’s reopening”, Ms Wood added, “So whether it’s garnering more of an audience or the opening has been advertised better this year, I don’t know – but the weather helps.”
Visiting from Madrid, Spain, were grandparents Julio and Mercedes Espinosa. Mr Espinosa, 67, said: “It is very interesting. It is beautiful – the landscape, the surroundings. We have seen an episode of the TV series and it’s very interesting.
“There are similarities between here and Spain. The situation with the farmers and the government here is similar to Spain but in Spain, it is worse.”
Antonio Espinosa and his wife Cristina, both veterinary surgeons living in Hampshire, had brought them to visit along with their children Aurelia, one and a half, and Luis, 20 days.
Mrs Espinosa, 33, said: “To be honest, we only came because we were staying quite close and we decided to come and see what the real Clarkson farm shop is like. We have been doing a bit of tourism and I have been working around here with some horses.
“I really like it; I think it’s amazing. I think it is much better than it looks on television just because they did that car park that I think was a big issue. With this day, it’s just perfect.”
She said it was “super busy” and “a bit crowded”, claiming her family waited an hour and a half to get inside the shop and eventually gave up.
But she added she was “in love” with everyone on the Amazon show. She said: “I love Jeremy, Kaleb is very funny too, but Gerald is the best.
“Jeremy is so natural and it’s so funny to see how he can, I guess, make this whole thing while knowing nothing. The risk he takes without worrying too much about it I think is hilarious. The place it’s located is amazing. I like this outside area and the bar more than the shop.”
Mr Espinosa added: “We have seen a lot of the series. The weather helps as well. It’s a bit expensive.”
Nishu Alex, 39, who works in a supply chain, managed to make the journey to the shop while visiting for work from Bangalore, India.
He first became a fan of Clarkson as a child while watching Top Gear. Now, his wife, Neeta, is a fan of Clarkson’s Farm and asked him to bring her back a souvenir.
Mr Alex said: “I think I’m very influenced by Jeremy in terms of his pick of cars. In India, we didn’t have nice cars so the only place we could see and learn about cars was Top Gear – and the only way we could watch it was via torrenting. The day [Clarkson’s Farm] released we finished it – that’s the only thing we watch together.”