Jeremy Clarkson reveals how he's 'beating the hosepipe ban' and keeping the Farmer's Dog's grass (mostly) green

Published: 00:01, 18 August 2026 | Updated: 00:06, 18 August 2026 Jeremy Clarkson has described how he keeps the grass at his Cotswolds pub green despite facing a hosepipe ban amid the country's crippling drought. Mr Clarkson, whose Diddly Squat farm was made famous by his Amazon Prime series, shared a tactic he used at his Farmer's Dog pub to access water. Aerial images from above the pub on Monday showed much of the grass remaining lush green while some patches and the neighbouring fields were parched brown. The former Top Gear host, who has been filming for the sixth series of Clarkson's Farm in recent months, revealed the trick while speculating on the health of Sir Rod Stewart's lawn in Essex. Sir Rod, 81, has managed to keep the sprawling gardens at his Grade II-listed Essex mansion in rude health despite being covered by Affinity Water's hosepipe ban. There is no evidence the singer has breached the ban at the ten-bedroom property he bought for £4.65million in 2013 and moved into with wife Penny Lancaster three years later – he may have an exemption or use a workaround such as watering cans. Mr Clarkson added to speculation, which he said had been led by 'the nation's bitter people' in a column last week. He asked readers: 'Could it be, perhaps, that Rod, here with wife Penny, probably has a borehole?' Grass outside Jeremy Clarkson's Cotswolds pub looked surprisingly lush on Monday as the presenter revealed his tactic for accessing water Mr Clarkson said he used a borehole to access groundwater from the rock under the Farmer's Dog pub in Oxfordshire, speculating Sir Rod Stewart may keep his grass healthy using a similar method Mr Clarkson, who fronts Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime, has said managing a pub is 'more stressful than running a farm' The former Top Gear host shared his thoughts in a column about Sir Rod's Grade II-listed mansion, which has maintained lush green grass despite the dry weather Writing in The Sun, the former Grand Tour presenter explained: '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.' Referencing the Farmer's Dog, he added: 'That’s what we did at my pub, which is why the lawns there are also weirdly verdant.' Mr Clarkson's boozer, which he bought for £1million, appeared surprisingly lush in pictures taken on Monday as healthy grass sprang up from much of the outdoor dining area. There also appeared to be a yellow hose snaking around the garden from a grey box-shaped structure near the pub. Hoses can run from boreholes, which are narrow, deep shafts drilled into the earth to draw underground resources including water, oil or natural gas. According to comparison site AquaSwitch, boreholes can cost tens of thousands of pounds to install and work by drilling down to access natural groundwater. Boreholes can produce around ten thousand litres of water a day, which AquaSwitch said was 'more than enough for homes, farms and small commercial properties'. Drawn from the natural rock layers – known as aquifers – underneath land, the groundwater drawn from boreholes begins as rain before filtering through soil, sand, chalk and other rock.  The bright green grass at Mr Clarkson's country pub stood in stark contrast to the parched neighbouring fields But even the pub's borehole-backed grass has suffered from the baking conditions this summer, as images from before last year's heatwaves showed  Mr Clarkson's pub has been consistently booked-out since he bought the site in 2024 for around £1million  In a Times column from 2020, Mr Clarkson said he had installed his borehole earlier that year and had drilled down 300ft (91m) into the ground. He wrote that 30 times more water on Earth is stored as groundwater as in lakes, inland seas, rivers, soil and atmosphere combined, which led him to turn to the ground to fuel his irrigation system. But after two months the system became jammed and Mr Clarkson said the borehole was drawing a 'curious and possibly lethal cocktail' of manganese, sodium and sulphates. He added: 'The levels were so far beyond legal limits that if anyone even stepped in a puddle of it, they’d immediately grow two heads.' His water had been passing through 'dirty' and 'diseased' rock as it settled under his Cotswolds land – he soon abandoned the method and began using the natural springs on his farm instead. It is not known whether Mr Clarkson still uses the borehole to irrigate his fields or how much water he draws from the source. The Farmer's Dog operates from Tuesday to Saturday each week and has been flooded with bookings since opening two years ago. In December, the Daily Mail revealed food in the country pub was prepared in a kitchen unit in an industrial estate in a town ten miles away. Mr Clarkson rented a shiny kitchen unit in Eynsham to prepare food before having it sent to the booked-out pub.