From "Diddly Squat" to a Hilltop Brewery: A Cotswolds Day Drive with a Friend from Japan

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A Friend Visits, and I Get Behind the Wheel

A friend of mine came over from Japan for a visit, and I decided to take them on a little day trip in the car. Our destinations: a farm shop that became a household name across Britain thanks to a hit TV show, and a small brewery in the village next door.

Today's Route

Today's driving route

• West Midlands (departure) → Diddly Squat Farm Shop — about 60 minutes
• Diddly Squat Farm Shop → Hawkstone Brewery — about 30 minutes
• Hawkstone Brewery → West Midlands (return) — about 75 minutes

All told, about 2 hours and 45 minutes behind the wheel — a relaxed drive through the Cotswolds countryside.

The Shop That Grew Out of "Diddly Squat"

Our first stop was Diddly Squat Farm Shop, tucked into the small Oxfordshire village of Chadlington.

"Diddly squat" is British slang for "next to nothing" — as in, barely any profit at all. Former motoring TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson bought this farm back in 2008, but for years he simply rented the land out to someone else. It wasn't until 2019 that he decided to start farming it himself. In that very first year, he ended up with an unexpected 40 tonnes of potatoes on his hands, and rather than let them go to waste, he opened a small shop on the farm in 2020 to sell them. That, apparently, is how the whole thing began.

What started as a humble potato stall soon grew to include home-produced honey (cheekily labelled "Bee Juice"), apple juice, and milk ("Cow Juice"). Clarkson is famously particular about all of it being "Made in Britain" — behind that insistence seems to be a real conviction about looking after British farming and making it sustainable. Today the shop is one of the most talked-about stops in the Cotswolds — largely because the streaming series "Clarkson's Farm," which follows his often chaotic attempts at farming, became a worldwide hit. Bad weather, failed crops, run-ins with the local parish council — none of it was left out of the show, and somehow that honesty is exactly what turned this little farm into a household name. Life has a funny way of working out.

We arrived around 10:30am, and there was already a long queue outside the shop — long enough that joining it would have meant a wait of about an hour. I'd heard it was popular, but honestly, I hadn't expected quite this much. Rather than stand in line, we headed to a kiosk round the back selling beer, burgers, and ice cream, and I picked up a soft-serve ice cream to enjoy standing right there. My friend was just as taken aback by how busy it all was.

While we're on the subject of Jeremy Clarkson, I wanted to mention something about the man himself. At 66 — my own age — he revealed back in 2024 that he'd undergone an emergency heart procedure (having two stents fitted) after his health suddenly took a turn on holiday. Then, in June 2026, during the fifth season of "Clarkson's Farm," he shared that he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer. By his own account it was an aggressive form, but caught early. Follow-up testing has since shown no detectable cancer, and he told fans on social media, simply, that he's "perfectly fine." He's since been urging men his age to get tested, saying it was early detection that made all the difference for him. As someone who's also 66, it wasn't a story I could just brush off as somebody else's news. There's something about hearing this kind of message from someone so visible — it lands differently than it would from a stranger.

You can watch the whole saga for yourself on Amazon Prime, in Clarkson's Farm. If you're at all curious about the state of British farming, or about Jeremy Clarkson as a person, I can't recommend it enough.

Visit notes

• Location: Chadlington village, Oxfordshire (the Cotswolds)
• Farm size: roughly 1,000 acres
• Shop opened: 2020
• Highlights: the farm shop itself, the on-site Big View Café, and the neighbouring pub, The Farmer's Dog
• Weekend mornings are the busiest — arriving early is worth it.

Raising a Glass at Hawkstone Brewery

From there, we drove on to Hawkstone Brewery, near the postcard-pretty village of Bourton-on-the-Water.

This brewery's story actually goes back further than Diddly Squat's. It began in 2005, when a couple named Rick and Emma Keene started a small family brewery called the Cotswold Brewing Co. Most British beer culture revolves around ale, but the Keenes deliberately set out to brew lager instead, quietly perfecting their craft for nearly two decades in a handsome building made of local Cotswold stone.

Everything changed in 2021, when Jeremy Clarkson came on board as an investor, and the brewery began using barley grown right on the Diddly Squat farm. By 2022, the business had been fully rebranded as Hawkstone. The name comes from the "Hawk Stone," a Neolithic standing stone near the farm — a nice touch, borrowing its name from a monument that's been standing in that same corner of England for thousands of years.

In contrast to the crowds at the farm shop, Hawkstone Brewery was quiet when we arrived, and we could take our time. My friend went for the Premium Lager, while I had the alcohol-free Hawkstone Lager Zero, since I was driving. My friend clearly enjoyed it — happily working through the glass with real enthusiasm. There's a roughly two-hour brewery tour on offer too, but it was fully booked that day, so we weren't able to join. Something to try next time.

Visit notes

• Location: College Farm, Stow Road, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire
• Founded: 2005, as the Cotswold Brewing Co.; rebranded Hawkstone in 2022
• Name origin: the "Hawk Stone," a nearby Neolithic standing stone
• Brewery tours: around two hours, tasting included — book ahead, as slots fill up quickly

The Drive Home, and Looking Back

On the drive back, with the gentle Cotswold hills rolling past, my friend and I talked over everything we'd seen that day.

Even at 66, being able to get behind the wheel myself and show a friend who's travelled all this way from Japan around somewhere special still feels like something to be grateful for. The story of a little shop that grew out of 40 tonnes of surplus potatoes, the story of a family brewery that took twenty years to build, and the story I learned that day about Clarkson's own health — they all seemed, in their own way, to be about the same two things: sticking with something, and noticing things early.

Today's drive, at a glance

• Total driving time: about 2 hours 45 minutes
• Stops: 2 (Diddly Squat Farm Shop and Hawkstone Brewery)
• Best time to go: early morning at both, if you'd rather skip the crowds