Six businesses, one family, and a farm that has never made money.
A thousand acres, a farm shop, a brewery turning over £21.3 million, a pub employing more than a hundred and forty people, a marketplace with 1,300 farms on it, and forty chapters of television. This is who does what, and where the money actually comes from.
The businesses.
Diddly Squat Farm
Roughly a thousand acres of the former Sarsden estate, including Curdle Hill Farm, bought in 2008 and farmed by its…
Diddly Squat Farm Shop
Opened in 2020 after roughly forty tonnes of potatoes needed a buyer. Now sells around 132 lines and is legally…
Hawkstone
Launched mid-2021, brewed by The Cotswold Brewing Company (05252279) at Bourton-on-the-Water. Sales of £21.3 million in the year to March…
The Farmer's Dog
A fifteenth-century barn on five acres near Burford, bought in 2024 for a reported less than a million pounds and…
Only Farmers
Lisa and Wolfe Bentinck’s marketplace for farm experiences and farmer-to-farmer trade. Incorporated February 2026, launched in May, over 1,300 farms…
The Media
Forty chapters across five series on Amazon Prime Video, with a sixth commissioned in January 2026. Five Diddly Squat books…
The paradox this whole website is about.
A globally famous farming brand, sitting on top of a farm that loses money, attached to a shop that planning law legally caps, feeding an audience of tens of millions who mostly live nowhere near Oxfordshire.
The farm made £144 in year one and lost about five thousand pounds in 2024–25. The brewery turned over £21.3 million. The shop is limited by enforcement notice to goods from within sixteen miles. The pub has eighty covers and a national audience.
Every single interesting thing about this estate follows from that mismatch. The value has moved downstream — into brewing, retail, hospitality and content — and the only growth vector that does not require another car in a capped car park is a digital one.
- £144
- the farming
- £21.3m
- the beer
- 16 miles
- the legal cap
Who actually does it.
Twelve people, of whom exactly one is famous for something other than this.
Jeremy Clarkson
Bought roughly a thousand acres of the former Sarsden estate in 2008 and had it contract-farmed until 2019, wh…
Lisa Bentinck
Runs the Diddly Squat Farm Shop, develops its product lines, and in 2026 co-founded Only Farmers — a marketpla…
Kaleb Cooper
The farm manager, and the person who actually knows what he is doing. Toured a one-man show, wrote two Sunday …
Charlie Ireland
Cheerful Charlie. The agronomist and land agent, and the person who has to explain planning law, scheme rules …
Gerald Cooper
Head of security, and the dry-stone waller. Diagnosed with prostate cancer during Series Three and declared ca…
Harriet Cowan
A Derbyshire nurse and farmer who covered for Kaleb during his tour in Series Four. Her TikTok following went …
Alan Townsend
Alan the builder, who built most of what has been built here, always slightly over budget and always slightly …
Wolfe Bentinck
Co-founder and technical lead of Only Farmers, appointed a director in May 2026. Hires for judgment rather tha…
Eighteen years, briefly.
From buying the land in 2008 to Chapter 41.
The land is bought
Roughly a thousand acres of the former Sarsden estate, including Curdle Hill Farm. It is contract-farmed by a local villager for the next eleven years.
The contractor retires
And rather than find another one, the owner decides to farm it himself. This turns out to be the beginning of everything else.
The farm shop opens
Roughly forty tonnes of accidental potatoes need a buyer. A shed gets a till.
Chapter 1: Tractoring
Series One arrives on Amazon Prime Video. Eight chapters, released together.
Hawkstone Lager launches
Brewed with barley grown on the farm. The first batch fails a blind taste test and is rebrewed.
The enforcement notice
West Oxfordshire District Council serves it over planning breaches.
Series Two
Chapters 9 to 16, including Council-ing and Counselling. It becomes the most-watched Prime Video original in the UK.
The appeal decision
The inspector upholds the notice in part — the restaurant is refused and the barn ordered restored, but the café, shop and car park are permitted, with the extra car park temporary and goods limited to a sixteen-mile radius.
The cider recall
A batch over-ferments. It is recalled with a statement beginning "we completely cocked up". Sales rise afterwards.
Series Three
Chapters 17 to 24. Unfarming is the most economically significant chapter in the run.
The full record.
Twenty-two moments, from 2008 to now.
The estate newsletter.
One email a fortnight covering all six businesses — the fields, the shop, the brewery, the pub and whatever went wrong. Written by somebody who was there.
- All six businesses, one email
- The failures as well as the launches
- One-click out, always
