Television presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed how he uses a private borehole to keep the lawns green at his Cotswolds pub during a drought.
Aerial photographs taken above The Farmer's Dog pub in Oxfordshire on Monday showed lush green turf across much of the outdoor dining area, even as surrounding fields were left parched brown by baking summer conditions.
The former Top Gear host shared his water-sourcing tactic while speculating in a newspaper column on how veteran rock singer Sir Rod Stewart has maintained a sprawling green lawn at his Essex estate despite a regional hosepipe ban.
Sir Rod, 81, lives at a Grade II-listed mansion valued at £4.65million, which he purchased in 2013 before moving in three years later in 2016 with his wife, Penny Lancaster. The property falls under a drought hosepipe ban enforced by regional water supplier Affinity Water.
There is no evidence that Sir Rod has breached water restrictions, as he may hold an official exemption or rely on workarounds such as watering cans. However, Clarkson noted that speculation had been led by "the nation's bitter people" before asking: "Could it be, perhaps, that Rod, here with wife Penny, probably has a borehole?"
How boreholes supply water
Writing in his column for The Sun, the former Grand Tour presenter explained the mechanics of tapping into underground water reserves. "You dig a hole maybe 100 metres down into the ground, put a pump in it and water comes out. Water that’s not subjected to any kind of government interference," he wrote.
Referring to his own venue, which he bought for £1million in 2024, Clarkson added: "That’s what we did at my pub, which is why the lawns there are also weirdly verdant." Photographs of the Oxfordshire site taken on Monday revealed a yellow hose snaking around the pub garden from a grey box-shaped structure nearby.
Boreholes are deep, narrow shafts drilled into the earth to extract subterranean natural resources, including groundwater, oil, and natural gas. Hoses can run directly from these shafts. According to business comparison site AquaSwitch, installing a borehole can cost tens of thousands of pounds as specialized equipment drills down into natural rock layers known as aquifers.
AquaSwitch noted that a commercial borehole can extract around 10,000 litres of water per day, a volume described as "more than enough for homes, farms and small commercial properties." Drawn from rock layers underneath the land, groundwater originates as rain before naturally filtering down through soil, sand, chalk, and rock.
Previous borehole issues at Diddly Squat farm
This is not Clarkson's first experience with subterranean water extraction. In a 2020 column for The Times, the presenter recalled drilling a 300ft (91m) shaft on his nearby Diddly Squat farm earlier that year to fuel an agricultural irrigation system.
Clarkson highlighted at the time that Earth stores 30 times more water underground than in all global lakes, inland seas, rivers, soil, and atmosphere combined. However, after two months of operation, his farm system jammed after drawing up contaminated water.
He revealed that the shaft was pumping a "curious and possibly lethal cocktail" of manganese, sodium, and sulphates after passing through "dirty" and "diseased" rock underneath his Cotswolds land. "The levels were so far beyond legal limits that if anyone even stepped in a puddle of it, they’d immediately grow two heads," he wrote.
Following the contamination issue, Clarkson abandoned the farm borehole and switched to using natural springs on his property. It remains unconfirmed whether he currently extracts water from the farm borehole to irrigate his fields or how much water is drawn.
Operations at The Farmer's Dog pub
Clarkson purchased the Oxfordshire pub in 2024 for around £1million before opening it as The Farmer's Dog. The venue operates from Tuesday to Saturday each week and has been consistently booked out since its launch. Clarkson, who fronted Amazon Prime Video's series Clarkson's Farm while filming its sixth series in recent months, has previously stated that managing a pub is "more stressful than running a farm."
In December, a Daily Mail investigation revealed that food for the country pub was prepared off-site. Clarkson rented a shiny kitchen unit on an industrial estate in Eynsham, located 10 miles away, where food is prepared before being transported to the booked-out venue.
Although the pub's borehole-backed grass remained greener than neighboring fields on Monday, images show the lawn has still suffered under this summer's baking conditions compared to pre-heatwave levels from prior years.
