Diddly Squat Farm Shop

Chadlington

Part farm shop, part pilgrimage

You will almost certainly have seen it on the telly, and once you are staying nearby it is hard not to go and look for yourself. Diddly Squat began as a lockdown side project on Jeremy Clarkson's working farm and became, more or less by accident, one of the most photographed sheds in the Cotswolds. The shop itself is deliberately small, a green-roofed cabin perched at the edge of a hill on the Chipping Norton road just outside Chadlington, with long views across the valley and a car park that fills up fast. It is part farm shop, part day out, and the atmosphere is always good-natured even when the place is heaving.

From Well Cottage it is about fifteen minutes by car, dropping down through the lanes toward Chadlington. We tend to treat it as a morning errand rather than a destination in itself, because the honest truth is that a lot of what you are paying for is the story. The produce is good and the setting is genuinely lovely, but the real draw is standing in a field in Oxfordshire, waiting to buy a tin of lager with a famous face on the label, and finding you rather enjoy it.

What's actually inside

The range is small and changes with the seasons, so we would rather point you at the kind of thing to look for than promise anything specific will be on the shelf when you visit.

• Hawkstone drinksThe lager, cider and ale brewed from the farm's own barley are the thing most people come for, and they travel the fifteen minutes back to the cottage very happily. Best enjoyed cold in the garden after a long walk.
• The farm's own produceJars, preserves, honey, rapeseed oil and whatever the fields and the season are throwing up. Stock is limited and can sell through on a busy day, so go early if there is something particular you want.
• Merchandise and giftsCaps, candles and the branded odds and ends that make easy, recognisable presents to take home. This is where the day-out side of the place shows most clearly.
• The viewFree, and arguably the best thing on offer. Give yourself a few minutes to take in the ridge and the valley before you join the back of the line.

The queue, the car park and the café

There is no getting around it: this is a busy place, and the queue is famous for a reason. On weekends and through the summer the line can stretch well back from the door and the car park can fill early, so a weekday morning is by far the calmest time to come. It does move, and the mood in the queue tends to be cheerful rather than fraught, but if you are hoping for a quiet browse this is not it. The site has also had a long-running planning tangle with the local council over what can and cannot operate here; a café and the shop are up and running, but the restaurant that featured on the show did not win permission to stay open in the lambing barn. Opening days are limited too, so it is worth a quick check of the official site before you set off rather than turning up on the off chance.

If the queue looks long

Half the fun of Diddly Squat is the spectacle, but if you have driven over and the wait looks brutal, there are gentler farm shops close by. Daylesford is the polished, upmarket option a short drive away, Wykham Park over toward Banbury is more of a proper working farm shop, and Worton Kitchen Garden is a lovely low-key spot for lunch and a browse. For the full picture, our guide to eating and drinking in the area runs from village pubs to farm-to-table restaurants and everything in between.

“Grab a few Hawkstones and go on a weekday if you can. The queue is half the fun, honestly, but only in small doses.”

Visit the official site →

Also nearby

• Daylesford · Farm shop · Daylesford
• Wykham Park Farm Shop · Farm shop · Banbury
• Worton Kitchen Garden · Farm café · nearby
• The Farmer's Dog · Pub · nr Burford