Prison pottery classes back after £20,000 funding boost

Pottery sessions are to resume at Deerbolt Prison thanks to the National Lottery.

Community Interest Company Mud & More had a life-changing effect on prisoners at the institution through “calming” pottery classes, but funding ran out earlier this year.

Since then, founders Suzanne Thomas and Vicky Hindle have been doing the work voluntarily because of the positive impact it has been having on prisoners.

The pair heard last month that their application for funding through the National Lottery’s Community Fund had been successful and they had been awarded the maximum grant of £20,000.

Vicky said: “The Lottery has sent us so many emails saying what a fantastic project it is, which is just amazing.

“We are just really looking forward to getting back in there and getting started again.”

The cash will allow for weekly sessions to take place and Mud & More is planning on a six-week course so that prisoners can hone their skills.

Vicky said: “We are going to take the wheel in as well so they can have a go on it.

“There are a lot of neuro-divergents in the prison and I think a lot of it is probably undiagnosed.

“Clay helps people with those kind of conditions because it calms them.

“The prison governor has even said that when we go in it creates a ripple across the wings in terms of calmness, and behaviour improves.

“They come in with total bravado – they are not going to do it, but at the end they are ‘Miss, Miss, look at my cup, look at my rose that I have made for my nana’.

“They are just so excited.

“We had one chap who was on the geriatric course making mugs in our last session and he’d been in prison for a very long time.

“He said, ‘I have never been proud of anything in my life Miss, but I am proud of this’.

“It makes your heart go.”

Mud & More have also attended Low Newton Prison for women on an ad-hoc basis giving sessions to those who are nearing the end of their term or who are on incentive schemes.

Vicky said: “They absolutely love it as well.

“Silence descends over the table and that is the best noise in a pottery room.”

Also in the planning are sessions for prison officers.