Jeremy Clarkson has 11 sheep stolen from his Diddly Squat farm as star warns rustlers: ‘We’re armed – just so they know’

Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm has been targeted by rustlers who have stolen 11 of his sheep.

Police are investigating the theft at the Cotswolds property – with the former Top Gear presenter demanding the return of the animals and warning thieves against any further raids, saying: ‘We’re armed.’

Clarkson found out about the suspected late-night raid when he went to count his flock with co-star Kaleb Cooper.

They discovered that only 16 of his 27 easycare breed sheep were in the remote Cotswolds field.

Clarkson spoke of his anger at the theft, telling The Sun: ‘It’s a farm. We’re armed. Just so they know.’ He added: ‘It p***** me off. Honestly, it just p***** me off.’

He said the sheep were worth more than £2,000 at market with lambs worth up to £8,000 for meat – and added that he was now worried that other livestock might have been stolen from the farm in Oxfordshire.

Clarkson believes the sheep, which were featured on series five of his Amazon Prime show, were taken at night or on a day when camera crews were not present. 

Asked whether he believed the show had made the 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?’

The sheep have featured on the Amazon Prime series Clarkson fronts

Last month Clarkson said the harvest at Diddly Squat was ‘f*****’ because of the scorching summer.

The farm and pub owner posted a screenshot of the BBC weather forecast for nearby Chipping Norton showing a high of 29C (84F) to Instagram with the caption: ‘Harvest already f*****. May as well just enjoy it now.’

Filming has started for a sixth series in recent months and it does appear likely that the focus will be on the record-breaking weather this year and the challenge it has posed for farmers.

The 1,000-acre farm has previously produced traditional crops including wheat, barley and rapeseed alongside potatoes, mustard and clover.

But Clarkson said earlier in the summer that 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.

Clarkson at the premiere of the new series of The Grand Tour on Wednesday

In 2021, Clarkson told The Times that avoiding inheritance tax had been ‘the critical thing’ in his decision to buy the land in 2008. He did not start farming it himself until 2019.

During a protest in 2024 against proposed reforms by 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.

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, 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.