Residents living in the beautiful Cotswolds town made famous across the world by Clarkson’s Farm have had enough of tourists ‘clogging up roads’ and ‘trendy’ Londoners pricing them out so they are packing up and leaving. There is an exodus out of Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire, with estate agents saying they have seen a doubling of the number of homes being put on the market in just two years – adding “No one from Chipping Norton lives in Chipping Norton”.
The pretty town, just a six-minute drive from Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm, has become a magnet for tourists in recent years but now, for sale signs line its picturesque stone streets, as locals flee the area. Max Boneham, a director at Chipping Norton estate agent Mark David says there are twice as many houses for sale now compared to two years ago.
He said: “We have twice as many properties on the market now as two years ago. At the start of this year, January, February, March time it was alright and suddenly it changed. There’s lots of for sale signs.”
Mr Boneham blamed wealthy London buyers pricing locals out of the market town. He said: “I think people who grew up in the area can’t afford it because of the London metropoles. No one from Chipping Norton lives in Chipping Norton.
“There are lots of trendy pubs around here and it’s not that far from London. Those trendy Londoners will buy up those little cottages and they go ‘it’s nice here I didn’t realise it was so nice.
“If people from London are selling a property they had for 20 years, a three bed town house for a million and come here looking for a cottage for half a million, they don’t have to worry about a mortgage and their salaries are much higher. They come in arm with more cash. That’s pushing the locals out.”
He added the popularity of Clarkson’s Farm is also becoming an issue: “There’s tourists too, Jeremy Clarkson comes and distracts us. If you’re American you come here and go to Diddly Squat Farm but there’s nothing there. They come and sit there in their car and buy some honey.”
Removal man Harry Winchester, 25, has been working across the Oxfordshire area for six years. He says the removals trade there has been busier in the past six months than it’s ever been – and he blame’s Clarkson’s Farm.
He said: “In the last six months we have had more business in Chipping Norton. That doesn’t necessarily mean there is a massive increase in people coming or going but as a company we have been here more in the last six months than we would usually be.
“I imagine the people are leaving because of Clarkson’s Farm. Clarkson is not really my cup of tea. I liked him when he did TopGear but I can’t see why people would be moving to be closer to his establishment, I could see why people would want to get away from it though.
“Chipping Norton has always been a very quiet town and I would say it’s quite close knit and a nice town community vibes going on. And now it’s getting flooded with tourists that are coming and clogging up the roads.
“When you have got more people you need bigger roads and traffic systems and if they’re not being put in place and the tourists are coming then it makes it very difficult for the person that lives here. Clarkson’s Farm is just a nuisance for them.”
Locksmith Nathan Hunt, 36, has lived in Chipping Norton his entire life. He said: “I’ve lived in Chipping Norton pretty much forever and it’s certainly got a lot more tourists.”
Mr Hunt, of Gills Locksmiths, said: “There are lots of holiday lets now – which for our business is fantastic. At least 40 per cent of our work is in holiday lets. But I can see why people get fed up and sell up. ”
He says the boom in short-term rentals is pushing up prices. “If you have a nice little cottage in the centre of town you can sell it for way over the odds because someone will do it up and rent it out as a holiday let.”
“People realise that their house that five years ago was worth £250,000 they can now get £350,000 for it because they can sell it as a lovely holiday let.”
But for Mr Hunt, leaving isn’t an option: “I don’t think we would move out of Chippy.” He added: “I think the trouble is if we moved out to a village we could potentially buy a much bigger, nicer house cheaper but we would probably then price ourselves out of Chippy, we could never afford to move back.”
But he shares others’ frustrations about infrastructure: “Infrastructure in general, we don’t have a police station here anymore, there’s no ambulance service, there is no A&E, the hospital is massive, but most of it is empty. I think there is frustration of a lack of basic infrastructure in the town.”
Schools are another sticking point for those fleeing the area. “When people come to the Cotswolds, they’re not coming here for the schools,” says Mr Boneham.
“There are no great schools around here. These people are moving for reasons like they want to move closer to the good schools.”
Mr Winchester added: “There’s only one primary school in the catchment area and it’s difficult to get a spot there. My clients send their young girl to private school. They said there is an issue in the area with people coming in and houses being built and no facilities being built along with them.
“So if you can afford to send your children to private school then send them to private school but from what I gathered they struggled finding them a normal school so maybe they have bitten the bullet and sent them to private school. I know some friends that moved to Chipping Norton and went to school in Banbury half an hour away.”
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