GRAND Tour presenter Richard Hammond says he feels totally at home among the local community since joining the commuters travelling to Hereford from Ross-on-wye.

The former Top Gear star, known to his fans as The Hamster, moved to Bollitree Castle at Weston-under-Penyard a decade ago.

But instead of flying overseas to film new shows, he is now commuting to a workshop in Rotherwas where he films his The Smallest Cog car renovation show.

Talking in a DRIVETRIBE video, the 52-year-old presenter said: "One of the many things I said right at the beginning of this show when it came about, and don’t forget it was the workshop before it was the show about the workshop, was that I was looking forward to commuting.

"Because for 25 years my commute has meant Heathrow, aeroplanes, somewhere abroad, two weeks away and come home.

"Now I get up and join the other commuters going from Ross to Hereford, so I kind of belong in the area - I feel connected.

"That’s not TV soppy nonsense, that’s absolutely true. I feel finally like I live here.

"It’s all about coming home, and I have."

He also said that while his "new life" was normal for most, it was "new and novel" to him.

He moved to Herefordshire 10 years ago with wife Mindy and their two daughters, and he says that "wherever they go, wherever life takes them", his children "will be from here".

Talking previously about the launch of The Smallest Cog, he said: "Every corner of every road, every little bit of it, will have a memory and association with it. For me, that’s a really great gift to them to say ’right, you’re from somewhere’.

He described Herefordshire as "a proper working county⦠that’s not big, flashy or noisy⦠people here are genuine and work."

"Herefordshire is a genuine place. We very deliberately put down roots here when my daughters were born because I wanted them to be from somewhere."

The star launched his Smallest Cog venture for Discovery with a classic car rally at Ross-on-Wye sportsground last August.

And he said at the time: "It’s in my bones. My grandfather was a coach-builder; he worked at Mulliners in Birmingham and thereafter at Jensen in West Bromwich.

"I’ve always wanted to prove to him that there’s more to me than driving around the world, talking about other people’s supercars, crashing them and then pretending to weld them up in a desert.

"It’s also about a passion of mine to preserve crafts - my grandfather could work with wood, metal and just about anything.

"I wanted to do something real in the car industry rather than just being a commentator on the outside of it. This business is the perfect opportunity for me to do that."

Meanwhile, his new Grand Tour special with Jeremy Clarkson and James May has proved a ’big hit’ over the festive period, quite literally, on Amazon.

Carnage A Trois sees the trio cause chaos across the border in the Brecon Beacons, before heading across England to the Channel, to examine the world of French car culture.

The special sees them throwing an old Citroen into orbit with a trebuchet, Hammond getting into a spot of car parking/trashing bother in Crickhowell, and the three wrecking vehicles driving though Welsh woods and up and down hillsides.