HOUSING association tenants in Cholsey rolled up their sleeves and got messy in the kitchen for a series of cooking lessons.

Former Wallingford School food technology teacher Angie Johnson, 44, has been giving the tutorials for the last six weeks.

Mrs Johnson, of Didcot, said: “I had been teaching food classes for 12 years and kept finding kids were coming into school with almost no knowledge of how to cook.

“It is something that is not really getting passed on to a whole generation, so I left the school to get out there and teach more people how to cook.”

Now Mrs Johnson, whose current series of lessons for Soha Housing has now ended, has been awarded funding to host four more weeks of lessons for residents.

They will start next Wednesday.

She added: “The lessons went down really well.

“I’m glad we’ll be able to do more.

“A lot of people who came bought a lot of ready meals and really enjoyed making things like pastries, they found it much easier than they thought it would be.

“Some were single mums as well and I think they really enjoyed coming on their own and then being able to try out what they’d learned at home.

“It was a really positive experience.”