Blooming Botcherby

28 August 2026

Blog by Malcolm Judge, Community Engagement Officer

On 1 April 2026, Botcherby Community Centre hosted a ceramics workshop as part of the Access to Eden project with the team from KAH Ceramics. It was a ‘Walk-In Wednesday’ at the centre and so, along with the yarn bombers and the pop-up pantry, everyone was welcome to create a ceramic piece for the wall. The initial work on a nature-inspired community ceramics installation to adorn the community garden wall began.

Along with the wonderful clay, children were given the chance to go on a bug hunt in the community garden and get some inspiration to create their own designs. As it was April Fool’s Day, they also had to be on the look-out for some cheeky imposters!

Later in April, everyone returned to see if the ‘kiln gods’ had been kind, and to decorate their designs ready to go on the garden wall. Members of the community were hard at work painting their nature-inspired ceramics, getting creative with poppies, butterflies and various mini beasts, and letting the colour palette run wild.

The final pieces have now been put into the garden for all to see when they are enjoying the community space.

The workshops were organised and delivered by the North Pennines National Landscape team as part of the Access to Eden: breaking barriers, building bridges – a partnership project led by Eden Rivers Trust with a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund – which aims to remove barriers to accessing the natural heritage of East Cumbria.