From prison to award-winning bakery - the amazing story of HMPasties

On the back of a hugely impressive win at the British Pie Awards, you could forgive Lee Wakeham to take a few days out to bask in the glory. Instead, the former prisoner spent his day visiting a local jail to teach inmates how to bake his award-winning pasties.

Since its launch in 2017, HMPasties has offered ex-offenders a stepping stone into the world of work and helped them gain food preparation and customer service skills in the process. Lee took full control of the business in October 2019 and moved his shop from Droylsden to Bolton just before the pandemic hit.

Despite the setback, the project has gone from strength to strength and earlier this month, HMPasties' chickpea curry pasty scooped the gong for 'Best Vegan Pie' at a ceremony in Melton Mowbray's St Mary's Church - dubbed the Cathedral of Pies. Although the company has won awards before, this one was particularly special to Lee, as he explained to the Manchester Evening News.

READ MORE:Behind the scenes at Carrs Pasties - the beloved Bolton bakery aiming to take over Manchester

"We've won a number of awards but this is the first one judged purely on the quality of the product. I didn't expect to win the vegan category. I was blown away and it's just testament to what we're trying to do here.

"This pasty actually came about when I was doing a lot of people with people getting out of prison, who were often homeless and getting food parcels. They'd always have chickpeas and canned potatoes but a lot of these people don't even have tin openers, let alone know what to do with chickpeas. I then just decided to make this for a vegetarian friend who wanted to try one of my pasties."

Along with chickpeas and potatoes, the pasties contain a number of spices and