ROADWATER paper-making apprentice Zoe Collis has won a national crafts bursary in support of her ongoing apprenticeship.

Zoe was presented with a certificate and cheque for £1500 towards her training costs at a ceremony in London on Saturday (March 24).

She is apprenticed at Two Rivers, in Roadwater – one of the last commercial handmade paper mills in the country and the only place in the UK where paper is made from old rags using water power.

The HCA/Arts Society Bursary is awarded to one successful trainee each year by the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA). Representatives of the two charities, Alex Langlands, patron of HCA and star of the BBC’s ‘Victorian Farm’ series, and Alison Galvin-Wright from The Arts Society, made the presentation.

Zoe will combine work-based training with travel to paper mills all around the UK to learn all aspects of the industry, from the handmade end of the spectrum represented by Two Rivers, to much larger industrial operations.

“A lot of my friends are miserable because they can’t get a job or they’re doing something they don’t want to do. I definitely feel better off than that. My future is brighter now I have this apprenticeship. Before, I was just seeing dead ends,” she said.