A Michelin-recognised chef and publican says that Covid has helped bring the local community together after they rallied during the pandemic.

Dave Watts, who runs The Crown Inn in Upton, has only opened his pub for seven months before lockdown hit, and saw the pub close for much of the past year. He said that the pandemic had helped integrate his pub into the community.

“We’d only been here for seven months, and had just got past getting to know everyone. We were helping to support the community when we closed, but they were supporting us just as much as we were supporting them. It really solidified us in the community, and helped us gel with everyone here.”

Dave worked as a chef alongside Raymond Blanc at his two Michelin Star restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, for several years before working at a number of other venues.

“Then the Crown popped up and it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss,” he said. “We’d just been open for seven months and then Covid hit and shut us down. It was a bit of a shock, and we weren’t really sure what to do and how to come out of it. It really changed the dynamic of what we delivered.”

The pub began providing takeaways and groceries to the community, including deliveries as far afield as Weyhill and Andover when people couldn’t get slots for deliveries.

“It’s all part of the community spirit,” Dave said. “Covid really helped round us in people’s minds. I was carrying a two Michelin star price tag with me, and people were perceiving that reputation. But in lockdown, we were getting involved with VE Day and doing 140 takeaway every night, which really made us feel like the hub of the community.

“Lockdown has done us a favour in the way, I think we got a year’s worth of word of mouth in lockdown one. I’m very much old school, and for me it’s about being humble and letting people know what we do. It was part of greater feeling of keeping people upbeat, and why not try to help that?”

Following the summer, and the introduction of further lockdowns, the pub continued to develop, with renovation work taking place and the introduction of ‘Hampshire Igloos’, wooden pods in the pub garden with inbuilt fires. However, just before the pub was due to reopen, they suffered a blow to their plans.

“We’d been moving a radiator, and so we’d taken it off and put it next to the fire,” Dave said. “It was a few days later when it was almost muscle memory that made us realise it wasn’t there. It was the shock of it happening more than anything that got to us.”

However, their efforts working with the community say villager Felicity Davis set up a fundraiser which raised thousands of pounds in just 36 hours. The pub has now put this money towards CCTV outdoors.

“It was such a humbling experience,” Dave said. “I don’t ask anyone for anything, so it was almost overwhelming. I was talking to a local when we reopened outdoors and they said it shows we belong here.

“I’d never thought of it like that before, and I was almost speechless.”

He said that the pub reopening indoors had put the soul back into the pub, with the outdoor opening having been “up and down”.

“A pub is all about having people inside it and when no one was in while we were decorating, it was so soulless,” Dave said. “But now, lighting the fire and welcoming guests back is really great fun.”

Dave’s work has been recognised with a Michelin Plate, which the food guide publishers say is often a prelude to being awarded the more well-known Michelin Star, with the plate representing establishments that “simply serve good food”.

“It just goes to show how diverse Hampshire is, and what we can do,” Dave said. “I’m not somebody who aims for awards like that. I cook because I love cooking and change what I do throughout the seasons. It’s just my palette, and this is just little old me doing what I love.”

This passion for the pub is shared across the Bourne Valley, where Dave is in regular contact with other publicans across the area.

“We’ve probably got seven pubs in total in this valley and we all offer different things which is a testament to what we do,” he said. “We have an owners WhatsApp group to see what’s going on and get advice, and it’s comforting to see everyone in the same boat and be there for each other.

“It’s not a competition. We’re just appreciating each other, and going to different pubs and trying to support each other even in lockdown.”

Looking to the future, Dave says that the pub wants to keep going as it is, though he does have some ideas of what could come next. For now, he is focusing on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and organising a street party to bring villagers together.

“I’m not sure we can solidify our community any more,” Dave said. “Covid has done that for us. “We’re a pub in a tiny village that people love and enjoy the experience we give, and so if we can keep that up and keep it going then we can look at long-term plans, like investing in rooms upstairs.

“For now, we just want to keep doing what we’re doing and doing it well.”