The Website for St George’s Church, Waterlooville and its Parish Magazine St George’s News
This summer we took a few days break in the Cotswolds staying at Heythrop Park. This hotel, before being acquired by Warners Leisure, was the training college for NatWest Bank so during my career working for NatWest I spent a week or two at Heythrop every year on some course or another. So interesting to see how it had changed. It was a huge place back in NatWest days, but has now been expanded even further; approached by a private road a full mile long, the centre piece is the original historic mansion house, from which spread wings to the North and South containing the accommodation rooms and public areas. There is a waiter service restaurant in the mansion house itself with oak panelling, beautiful carvings and ceilings, and glorious views across the open parkland; also a self-serve buffet restaurant, a gastropub, two theatres for after dinner entertainment, three bars, a spa and indoor swimming pool, and a full size 18 hole golf course, all set in extensive grounds.
The shop itself is surprisingly small, really nothing more than the size of a large garden shed. The queue to enter wound around the building for some way and indicated that it would take about 45 minutes to get to the front, but apparently this was a relatively quiet time and usually the queue is much longer especially at weekends. Nevertheless the idea of visiting the shop was abandoned! Behind the shop was an ice cream van and a trailer selling burgers alongside an old farm barn where a full range of Clarkson’s Hawkstone Beer was on offer so we partook of some liquid refreshment and explored what little more there was to see here.
So we first visited the famous Diddly Squat Farm Shop, and yes it is for real. Located off a narrow country road which takes some finding in the middle of nowhere except open country-side, it was so busy that there were marshalls directing the cars to the limited remaining parking spots.
The hotel is not far from the now famous, or infamous farming enterprise that features on Amazon Prime Video in the tv series Clarkson’s Farm. If you have access to Prime Video you will know all about Diddly Squat Farm, if not then you have really missed a treat as Jeremy Clarkson’s antics trying to tackle the complexities of farming without a clue as to what he is doing are amongst the most entertaining to be found on television. Anyway, we thought whilst in the area we would join the many tens of thousands of people that explore for themselves whether his farm is for real or just a tv set.
The plan had always been that on the final day of the break we would have an evening meal at Jeremy Clarkson’s famous pub, The Farmer’s Dog. Now, reservations open at 9am at the beginning of the preceding month, so for a booking in July the key date and time was early on 1st June – on to the pub website at the specified time and the dinner reservation was secured. As a matter of interest, during the afternoon of 1st June I rechecked reservation availability and by then everything in July was completely sold out!
So on our last day on our way back home we departed early afternoon to The Farmer’s Dog. As we approached the area the SatNav warned of severe congestion and recommended an alternative route which involved a complex series of directions along narrow lanes but brought us to the pub, eventually, without incurring a traffic jam. Here, there was a massive field containing many hundreds of cars, and this car park was accessed via a long farm track creating a one-way system with marshalls directing where to park. A short walk then brought us to the pub itself. Here was a vast garden full of tables and chairs, nearly all occupied, and a centrepiece of the garden was the original tent used as the travelling studio for the Amazon Prime tv series The Grand Tour.
The Manor House, Heythrop Park
‘Soup of the Day’ – Hawkstone Lager
The Garden at The Farmer’s Dog
The Grand Tour tent with the illuminated ‘GT’ logo
Within the tent were two shopping areas selling merchandise, all pricey but of good quality, a butchers shop selling various meat products, and tables and seats crammed into the remaining space all of which were occupied. As a table nearby us vacated we quickly took possession of it, and then spent some time over a pint of Hawkstone Lager looking at all the activity in the garden, and the glorious countryside views beyond.
Soon it was time to head for the pub itself to check in for our dinner reservation. On entering the building, above you is an old farm tractor suspended to the ceiling, and on the floor below a Grand Piano, on which is a notice saying “If you can play the piano you are most welcome to .. If you can’t you’re not”.
We were directed upstairs to the “Farmer’s Clubhouse”. For starters Janet had the breaded brie and I had the cold smoked Bilbury Trout, and then we both had the steak and Hawkstone pie as our main course. Everything at the pub is sourced in the UK, mostly from local farms, and quality was excellent.
So is Clarkson’s Farm and The Farmer’s Dog worth a visit? If you have followed the tv series then it is definitely well worth it for the novelty of seeing it first hand; there is not really that much at the Diddly Squat Farm Shop other than long queues, albeit a pleasant setting for a quality burger and pint of Hawkstone Ale. If it is merchandise as a souvenir that you are after then there is much more of interest at The Farmer’s Dog pub and the shops there are larger with a better range of stock and less queues. If you want to have a meal in the pub itself, you might be lucky turning up and getting a cancellation, but as far as we could see most people trying to do that were disappointed and a reservation is to be recommended.
‘You’ve seen the show, now eat the Cast’
