Jeremy Clarkson offering free kegs of Hawkstone lager or cider after they saved The Farmer's Dog pub "from financial ruin"

With ever more landlords calling time on the business, Jeremy Clarkson has decided to throw struggling British pubs a lifeline - by giving away 1,000 free kegs of beer. The former Top Gear presenter himself bought a boozer just last year and has admitted it’s difficult to turn a profit in this increasingly difficult industry.

The 64-year-old opened The Farmer's Dog in Oxfordshire last August, following the success of his Diddly Squat Farm Shop - located in The Cotswolds - which shot to fame thanks to Amazon Prime TV show 'Clarkson's Farm'.

Clarkson previously said that he has avoided "financial ruin" by serving Hawkstone lager and Hawkstone cider and is now offering free kegs to struggling pub owners to help reverse flagging trade.

In a video posted to Instagram, Jeremy said: "Welcome to The Farmer’s Dog, it’s a pub I’ve had for about six months now, and I’ve worked out it is a brilliant way of turning £100 into about £94 using nothing but costings. The only thing that is saving me from financial ruin is the fact that we serve Hawkstone lager and Hawkstone cider."

He added: "If you’ve got a pub and if you want to see if this strategy works for you as well, get in touch with us at our website, and if we like the sound of your pub, if it is the kind of place we want to be in, we’ll send you a free keg. 88 pints of Hawkstone lager or cider for nothing."

Last month, Jeremy was forced to call in the police after his farm was targeted by thieves and revealed the attackers used drones to target the property and his animals. Writing in his column for The Sun newspaper last week, Jeremy explained: "Two weeks ago, five men in a van came into the farmyard. They checked out the security cameras and asked Kaleb [Cooper] how many dogs were on the site.

"I reported this to the police who said the plates on the van had been cloned. More worryingly, on two separate nights in the last week, a drone has been spotted, scouting the house and the farmyard. The police say it does look like we are being recced by wrong ’uns and that we should ensure our security systems are up to scratch.”

Earlier this month, the Diddly Squat Farm shop reopened after it mysteriously closed its doors for a couple of months, seeing crowds of people queueing for hours to get their hands on Clarkson's goods.

Visitors came from far and wide, including Spain and India, to get a glimpse of the countryside and items available. They were not deterred by long wait-times and queued for up to an hour and a half to enter the tiny shop and look around.

The infamous £200 pies that stirred up controversy last year were absent from this year’s selection, but smaller pork pies were on sale for £7.20. “Jeremy’s” sausages and bacon were available, as well as “Diddly” eggs for £4.20, a range of cheeses, homemade pesto and pates and milkshakes and homemade apple juice from Clarkson’s orchard.