Police have launched an investigation after 11 sheep were allegedly stolen from Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm, with the broadcaster issuing a blunt warning to those responsible: “We’re armed.”
The former Top Gear host said he discovered the suspected overnight theft while checking on his flock alongside Kaleb Cooper, his co-star on the hit Prime Video series Clarkson’s Farm.
Clarkson travelled to a remote field in Oxfordshire expecting to find 27 Easycare sheep, but counted just 16 remaining. Thames Valley Police was last night looking into the reported theft, according to The Sun.
The 66-year-old urged the thieves to bring the animals back and delivered a stark message, saying: “It’s a farm. We’re armed. Just so they know.” He added: “It p***** me off. Honestly, it just p***** me off.”
Clarkson said the missing sheep had a market value of more than £2,000, while their lambs could have been worth up to £8,000 as meat.
He added he was worried other livestock might have been stolen from elsewhere on his Cotswolds farm.
Mr Clarkson believes the sheep, which were featured on series five of his Amazon Prime show, were swiped at night or during a day camera crews were not present.
Asked whether he believed the show had made his farm a target, he said: ‘It’s more likely to make you a target than less but I still don’t think they’ve been stolen because they’re on Diddly Squat. How can you [stop it] if someone’s determined to steal your livestock?’
Jeremy Clarkson has said 11 of the Easycare sheep from his Diddly Squat farm have been stolen
The sheep have featured on the Amazon Prime series Mr Clarkson fronts and he warned the thieves: ‘We’re armed’
Last month Mr Clarkson said the harvest at Diddly Squat was ‘f*****’ as the country endured a scorching summer.
The farm and pub owner posted a screenshot of the BBC weather forecast for Chipping Norton to Instagram with the caption: ‘Harvest already f*****. May as well just enjoy it now.’
The forecast for the Oxfordshire village – near to where the former Top Gear presenter owns the land made famous by his Amazon Prime series – showed a high of 29C (84F) on the day he posted.
Mr Clarkson’s farming show has been filming for a sixth series in recent months and after featuring candid reflection on the difficult realities of British farming in its earlier episodes, will likely focus on the impact of this year’s hot weather.
The 1,000-acre farm has previously produced traditional crops including wheat, barley and rapeseed alongside potatoes, mustard and clover.
But Mr Clarkson said in July he had deliberately left 200 acres uncropped this year because planting wheat or barley would have guaranteed financial losses.
He warned it was becoming ‘quite simply impossible’ to make money from growing food and warned more farmers could be left with little choice but to use their land for other means.
Mr Clarkson at the premiere of the new series of The Grand Tour on Wednesday
In 2021, Mr Clarkson told The Times that avoiding inheritance tax had been ‘the critical thing’ in his decision to buy the land.
But during a protest in 2024 against proposed reforms by Sir Keir Starmer’s government to the tax he said he had actually bought it ‘to shoot’.
The Government had proposed imposing a 20 per cent levy on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1million from April this year, ending the 100 per cent tax relief which had been in place since the 1980s.
But after months of protests by farmers – including tractors bringing traffic to a halt in Westminster – the Government raised the threshold to £2.5million.
Mr Clarkson bought the land in the Cotswolds in 2008 but did not begin farming it himself until 2019.
In its first year the farm – originally bought by Mr Clarkson for £4.45million – made just £144 in profit before making less than £15,000 in the year from 2023 to 2024 and losing £5,000 in the year from 2024 to 2025.
He wrote last year: ‘If those numbers are typical, it means farmers are working twice as hard as anyone else and not even getting the minimum wage.’
Earlier this year, Mr Clarkson said he had been diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer which had been discovered early.
He later told The Sunday Times a PSA test in April showed no sign of cancer and he was in remission.
On Wednesday he appeared at the premiere of the latest series of The Grand Tour, which will see Francis Bourgeois, Thomas Holland and James Engelsman take over from him, James May and Richard Hammond.