Clarkson’s Farm Locals Angry Over Jeremy’s New Restaurant Plans: “Someone Game Me The Finger On The Way In”

Jeremy Clarkson met at his local town hall with local villagers last night September 9 to discuss the future of Clarkson’s Farm, Diddly Squat Farm. This came about after Jeremy’s farm shop became incredibly popular after the release of the Amazon Prime show, causing thousands of fans to flock to the Chadlington.

This caused hours of traffic jams around the area, with many locals complaining about the change in their home village. And while some businesses were appreciative of the increased foot traffic around the area leading to more customers, others, including the council, weren’t overly happy.

Waiting at Chadlington Memorial Hall, he told reporters on the scene:

“I’m just here to listen. Gossip spreads in villages and they don’t know what we’re doing so I thought, the best thing I can do is come down and say, ‘This is what we’re doing,’ and then it isn’t gossip any more.

“Someone gave me the finger on the way in.”

During the discussion, he was asked about the effect on traffic, in which he replied:

“Hey listen, the village has created a bit of a traffic jam tonight.”

Jonathan Moore, a doctor who lives in Chadlington, told reporters that Jeremy had promised to “control” the numbers of fans who are coming to the farm.

Talking to the PA news agency, he said: “It’s all subject to planning, so he can’t promise anything yet, but he’s hoping to change the lambing shed into a restaurant. We thought it would be for 150 (people) but it’s actually 60 seats, and he’s trying to control the number of people coming to the farm shop in the future.

“It’s very expensive to sell his produce so he wants to try and sell as much through the farm shop and the restaurant as he can.

“As expected there were some people who had very strong views either way, the people who had negative views made them more strongly. He gave his views for the future and that’s all we can really hope for.”

Another resident also contributed: “There were two or three local people who were very negative but I got the feeling that the majority was open to this project.”

Jeremy is obviously trying to increase the revenue he’s making through the selling of produce to private customers, which he’ll be getting higher margins on. And with a new restaurant possibly on the way, it begs only one question: Are you going to Jeremy’s or James May’s first?