Clarkson holds meeting with villagers over farm shop traffic

Villagers who live near the farm raised concerns about the traffic created by Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm shop
Villagers who live near the farm raised concerns about the traffic created by Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm shop

Jeremy Clarkson has hosted a public meeting with villagers who live near his farm amid concern about the increase in traffic due to the success of his new TV series.

The former Top Gear presenter attended the meeting on Thursday (9 September) at the Memorial Hall in Chadlington, Oxfordshire.

Villagers highlighted concerns about the increase in traffic created by Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm shop, which is featured in Clarkson's Farm.

The hugely popular Amazon Prime TV series charts Clarkson's venture into farming after buying a 1,000-acre farm.

The programme, which has had the go ahead for a second series, was filmed throughout the course of the farming year in 2019.

Arriving at Thursday's meeting, Clarkson said: "Gossip spreads in villages and they don't know what we're doing."

He told those who attended the one-hour meeting his plans to convert his lambing shed into a restaurant, subject to planning.

And he also reportedly said he would take measures to curb visitor numbers to his farm shop, which has seen huge visitor numbers and long queues.

Local resident Jonathan Moore was at the meeting. He said: "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."

Clarkson's new farming series first aired on 11 June on Prime, and it has turned out to be one of the service's most popular programmes.

Speaking to FarmingUK before the show first aired, Clarkson explained that he wanted to present British farming in a different light.