Jeremy Clarkson offered Cotswold pub owner £1m 'within minutes' | Celebrity News

Clarkson’s Farm star Jeremy Clarkson announced earlier this week that he has invested in his latest venture: a pub. The TV presenter-turned-farmer plans to sell his Hawkstone beer and cider from a Cotswolds pub when it opens later this year.

The 64-year-old admitted buying The Windmill, near Burford, Oxfordshire, and said he wanted his bar to welcome “dogs and families around the fire” while serving exclusively British ingredients on the menu – with a ban on slot machines and “confusing” toilet signs.

Since the sale, Jackie Walker, 79, who opened the pub in 1983, has spoken about how the change of hands happened. The former landlady told MailOnline: “A film crew came to the pub and straight after someone from Clarkson knocked on the door and asked if I was interested in selling.”

She explained that she had been invited to meet Jeremy and his partner, Lisa Hogan, at his home in the nearby village of Chadlington – where his farm Diddly Squat is located – to discuss possible terms.

Jackie added: “The first thing Jeremy said to me was, I guess you want a lot of money for this. We met for coffee at his place, and I got the plans. He and his partner Lisa were lovely, and I really liked them.

“I hadn’t planned on selling the place, but I wasn’t very happy with the way it was being run and I’m not getting any younger.”

She said Jeremy then made her an immediate offer that was much more than she expected – and she accepted immediately.

The former Top Gear presenter has previously spoken of his plans to own a pub: “I decided last year that I would like to buy a pub. I dreamt, as many men have dreamed in the past, of chatting to the regulars about trivial matters and then having a Sunday roast with my family at my own table.

“I hadn’t managed to get planning permission to convert a barn on my farm into a restaurant, but I still wanted somewhere where I could sell everything we produce here. And my own draught beer too.”

Clarkson says his pub will employ 80 people but may not open until the end of the year as major renovations are underway.

He said: “It’s entirely possible that I won’t be able to get the place fixed up and open before the icy hand of winter descends, meaning I’ll have 80 people to pay every week, a quagmire for a car park and no customers because – as I’ve been told many times – people don’t go to country pubs any more. I think there are good reasons for that.”

“Pleasure is a rare commodity, and that’s the pleasure I want to give 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 Sundays with my granddaughter to eat ham, eggs and fries.”

He also gave an update on his health, adding: “Except for one annoying little detail. I just got a message from my doctor saying my liver is a little stiff and I really need to stop drinking for a while.”