Running pub 'more stressful' than farm - Clarkson

Clarkson opened his Oxfordshire pub in August 2024

Running a pub is "more stressful than running a farm", Jeremy Clarkson has said.

The former Top Gear presenter opened The Farmer's Dog pub in Asthall, near Burford in Oxfordshire, last summer.

Clarkson said he had discovered "so many things" about opening and running a pub that you "wouldn't even consider".

At the same time, he continued to run his farm near Chipping Norton - which is the setting for his series Clarkson's Farm - often without the help of contractor Kaleb Cooper, who spent part of last year on a nationwide tour.

"When you and I go in a pub, you ask for a pint, you get a pint, you sit down, maybe have some pork scratchings or something, and it doesn't look that difficult," the 65-year-old said.

"But there's an enormous amount of regulation on food hygiene and safety, and then you've got staffing... that's all very complicated."

The Farmer's Dog is in Asthall, near Burford

Hundreds of people queued for hours to be among the first customers at the pub when it opened in August, with some telling the BBC it was a "social phenomenon".

The pub's opening coincided with the bank holiday weekend, which Clarkson said was "way too soon" and was the "exact same time as I was doing the harvest".

"I'd spend all day trying desperately to get the pub open and dealing with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of problems, then you get home absolutely knackered, and you have to get into your tractor and do grain carting through the night."

Clarkson's Farm 4 is released on 23 May

Although Clarkson said running a pub was "more stressful than running a farm", he said he saw it as "somewhere where farmers could go, if it's raining on a Tuesday afternoon and they can't work on their farm, they could come and have a pint and meet other farmers".

Cooper echoed similar sentiments, saying: "Farmers use the pub way too little, because they think they're too busy all the time.

"Actually, they need to start using it a bit more and just go for a pint and a chat.

"It's important we talk, we've all got the same worries and the same stresses so therefore we ought to talk to each other about it," the 26-year-old added.

The fourth series of Clarkson's Farm releases later this month.