The Lord Nelson Inn at Besthorpe serves up 3,000 meals for community during coronavirus lockdown

The Lord Nelson Inn at Besthorpe will reopen tomorrow after being closed for five months due to coronavirus.

In that time it has cooked and delivered more than 3,000 meals to the community, mainly to the elderly and those self-isolating.

Richard Cotterill, a partner in the pub, said when the closure announcement was made, they were worried some older customers might struggle to get a hot meal every day.

“We decided that we would do our bit to help by offering an affordable weekly menu, delivered daily to the customers in their homes,” he said.

“For four months myself, my wife and my mother have prepared meals for delivery seven days per week.

“In August we dropped this to five days each week to give us time to get the pub ready for reopening and have a couple of days off.”

“We have also hosted a fortnightly virtual pub quiz to keep people entertained.”

Richard hopes to keep running the meal deliveries alongside the pub, as it was so well appreciated.