‘God has given us all talents’

Jackie Macadam reflects on the life and faith of award-winning environmental campaigner, Maureen Potter.

ROOTING around among the moss and glaur isn’t the usual place to find 80-yearold women – but then Maureen Potter isn’t your average octogenarian.

“I’ve just always had a very active mind,” she laughs. “It keeps me on the go and I love learning new things. For instance, did you know that the peatlands of Scotland are just as important as the Amazon rainforests in slowing down global climate change?”

Maureen has become something of an expert on peat bogs and was recently awarded the Glasgow Times Scotswoman of the Year Award for her efforts to save the local peatland, Langlands Moss.

“I was born in a Church of Scotland Mother and Baby home in the West End of Glasgow,” she says.

“Mum’s intention was to have me adopted but once I was born she couldn’t bring herself to do so. In January 1942 I was baptised by a Church of Scotland minister and shortly afterwards the Church found Mum a post as a domestic servant with a Mrs Scott, in the Clyde Valley.

“The Scott family were very good to me as a small child. It was while Mum was working there, she met Alex Kelly who was supervising Italian POWs working on the estate. They married in 1944 and I was adopted as Maureen Kelly.

“Once they were married, they moved into Orchard Lodge and my earliest memories are of living in that little lodge and the arrival of my two sisters.

“My parents taught all of us to pray and read Bible Stories to us as well as parts of the Bible. They were both very musical and taught us simple hymns such as Jesus Loves Me, Away in a Manger and many others. Both my sisters are lovely singers but I cannot sing to save myself! I was a bright pupil in school but this did not go down well due to my birth origins which I didn’t fully understand.

“When I was almost 10, we moved to Yieldshields, which is nearly three miles from Carluke in a different direction. My parents’ new employer was Captain Forest and his wife. We were much closer to school now as it was only about a half a mile from our house.”

It was there that Maureen met an inspirational teacher.

“It was a very small school with only one teacher, Miss Jessie Hunter, who was totally dedicated to the children in her care. Like many of her generation, her fiancé was killed in the First World War and she never married. Her whole life was focussed on her pupils who ranged in age from P1 to P7 and had wide ranging abilities. I loved her and she was my inspiration to go into teaching.

“I found out there was a Sunday School in the neighbouring village of Kilncadzow which was organised by the congregation of St John`s Church in Carluke. I rounded up all the village children in Yieldshields on a Sunday afternoon, walked them the mile or more to Kilncadzow for Sunday School then walked them all home after Sunday School. We all enjoyed the afternoon so it was a sizeable group who attended the Sunday School. Miss Hunter was very proud of our endeavours!”

It was then, as they say, that life got in the way.

“When I reached the age of 11, I sat my qualifying exam which I passed and I became a pupil at Lanark Grammar. I enjoyed my time there but as I entered third year, Captain Forest told my parents that he was terminally ill and that the estate would be sold on his death. My parents had to move.

“Between 1955 and 1957 I attended Lanark Grammar, Greenock High School, Gatehouse of Fleet High School, Bathgate Academy and Hamilton Academy. By the time I got to Hamilton Academy my education was totally messed up and they advised me to repeat fourth year. After some thought, I took a train into Glasgow from Thorntonhall where we were living at that time, walked up to Sauchiehall Street, walked into Copland and Lye and asked if they would give me a job. They said I had to sit an exam, which I did there and then, passed with flying colours, got the job and went home to tell my parents I had left school. They expressed some disappointment but I think they were relieved too as money was tight in the household.”

“I trained as a haberdasher in Copland’s and enjoyed the job but after a year my brain was looking for a challenge so I started night school classes, doing typing, commercial English and bookkeeping.

"It keeps me on the go and I love learning new things. For instance, did you know that the peatlands of Scotland are just as important as the Amazon rainforests in slowing down global climate change?"

I changed jobs too and went to work in the office of Sunbeam Electric, East Kilbride where I worked shorter hours and was much better paid than I was in Copland’s. However it was while I was working in Copland’s I met Ian Potter. We got engaged in November 1959 and married the following October. We were both very young and with little money. Initially we stayed in Busby with Granny Potter until we got a flat in East Kilbride. Two daughters followed.”

As the children grew, that active brain of Maureen’s started to look for more challenges.

“We lived near Duncanrig High School in East Kilbride which had a large night school. There I gained enough qualifications to gain entry to Hamilton College of Education, to train as a teacher – something I had always wanted to do. Sadly by that time Miss Hunter, my inspiration, had died, so she never knew I achieved that ambition. After three years, I graduated and taught in Loch Primary, Rutherglen then Long Calderwood Primary in East Kilbride. I enjoyed my time in both schools and still meet up with former colleagues regularly and often former pupils as well.

“Over the years Ian and I had remained in Busby East then Busby Parish Church. Ian sang in the church choir, I was Treasurer, Vice-President, President, Secretary of the Guild and we were both ordained as elders in the 1990s. I had retained my interest in World Mission so when the opportunity arose to become Carol Finlay’s Mission Partner during her time at Ekwendeni, I was happy to take on that role. Around 2005/6, Shena Dougall, who was a member of Williamwood Parish Church formed a group which became known as the Kwenderana Partnership Group and incorporated Busby, Giffnock South, Greenbank and Williamwood Parish Churches. I was part of the group until 2018.

"I’ve always grown up among nature. Nature sustained my family during the war years and as humans, we rely on nature to live."

“We worked with World Mission Faithshare to bring visitors from Ekwendeni to the Kwenderana area and to arrange visits from Scotland to Ekwendeni. I was fortunate enough to visit Ekwendeni in 2010 and 2015 and have many friends there still with whom I am in regular contact. Taking part in this project deepened and challenged my faith. We have a lot to learn from our friends in countries such as Malawi.”

But Maureen’s active brain was still looking around her for challenges – and she found one, very locally, when a multinational company tried to build near a local nature reserve.

“Around the same time as the Kwenderana Partnership Group started there were challenges for Ian and myself to face near our home in East Kilbride. A major multinational company planned to build an aero engine testbed facility between our small estate and the local nature reserve at Langlands Moss. This upset us very much and we helped form a campaign group to protest at this this facility which was going to store a large amount of kerosene, test aero engines 24/7 and appeared to have no plans to filter or monitor pollution levels. It was during this ongoing campaign that I, along with others locally began to realise the real importance of Langlands Moss LNR. We endured a lot of criticism from many who lived in the town and the surrounding area so it was a very difficult time for those of us brave enough to raise our heads above the parapet and from time to time I still get criticism. However, the development was cancelled due to the difficult international financial market in 2007 which developed into a recession in 2008.

“I’ve always grown up among nature. Nature sustained my family during the war years and as humans, we rely on nature to live.

“During the campaign we had challenged South Lanarkshire Council on their neglect of Langlands Moss and pointed out that they had a legal duty to protect this nature reserve from industrial development. They confirmed we were correct in our allegations and we formed a fully constituted group called Friends of Langlands Moss LNR to work in partnership with South Lanarkshire Ranger Service from 2006 until 2022.

“I grew up in a rural environment and never lived in a street until I was 18. My childhood life was dominated by the seasons, spring planting and propagation of crops, rearing chickens, hay making, soft fruit picking, grain harvest, and potato lifting then finally preparing the chickens we had reared for Christmas customers. Much of the food we ate was locally grown or foraged, my mother made butter and crowdie from a plentiful supply of milk we got daily from the home farm. It was a simple life in many ways and nature was all around us, part of God`s creation which was a gift to us. We were nurtured in that belief and the rhythms of the rural year. I loved the nearby moorlands and when I visited my relatives in the Moray area I loved the mountains and the moors there too. They seemed to be part of me in a way I can`t explain so when I first learned about Langlands Moss becoming a local nature reserve in 1995 I was intrigued. Once we knew where the Moss was, Ian and I walked the area regularly while he was able to do so. I used it to collect berries, leaves etc. to take into school to help children in their tree identification skills. I also included it in the local study of East Kilbride and took children to visit it but I still didn’t realise the full significance of Langlands Moss and peat. It wasn’t until we formed FOLM (Friends of Langlands Moss) that I started to really learn about the importance of peat and the different types of peatlands in Scotland.

“We discovered that peatlands comprise fen lands as well as two types of peat bogs found in Scotland, blanket peat bogs which are prevalent in the Highlands and in particular in the Flow Country and lowland raised peat bogs which are more common in the central belt of Scotland. Blanket bogs are not as deep as lowland raised peat bogs and blanket the large areas upon which they lie. Lowland raised peat bogs are lochs which have silted up over many years with sphagnum, trapped carbon in the process and eventually they form a dome like appearance. Langlands Moss LNR is a lowland raised bog and is about 8.5 metres deep at its highest point which means it is about eight and a half thousand years old and stores around 45,000 metric tonnes of carbon annually. Over the centuries both types of peat bogs have been substantially damaged by humans who have drained them to improve pasture, burned them for heat in their homes, excavated them for crop growing and gardening projects etc.

“When we started our group, peatlands were regarded as wastelands and of little value to the community. However change was afoot when research indicated that they are great carbon stores and could be used as a way of storing carbon and also offsetting carbon emissions. In 2012, Scottish Natural Heritage now Nature Scotland, launched a Peatland Action Plan to start the restoration of peatlands. We were involved from the very beginning and indeed The Bog Squad which is under the auspices of Butterfly Conservation was launched by the then Environment Minister, Aileen Campbell MSP at Langlands Moss LNR. Since then a lot of money has been spent by the Scottish Government through Peatland Action to restore peatlands throughout Scotland. “We have raised around £200,000 in grants which have been spent improving access to the LNR, buying damming material to install on the peat bog to keep it wet, (the wetter the bog, the more carbon it stores), renewed the boardwalk and signage and when the boardwalk was badly damaged in two serious arson attempts, raised money to help pay for the repair. As a group we have worked with local youth groups such as 2nd East Kilbride BB, Scouts, Cubs, schools, adult and family groups carrying out a multitude of activities such as installing bird boxes, damming the bog, removing trees, path laying and much more. Through our campaigning efforts, we have had the LNR increased from 20 hectares to 47 hectares and after a feasibility study was carried out, Peatland Action have carried out further restoration on another raised bog within the boundary which is 10 metres deep storing about another 50 thousand metric tonnes of carbon annually.

“I was a founder member of the group and acting Chair for a year and then Chairperson from 2012 until I stepped back at the beginning of 2022. As a Christian I feel we have a responsibility for stewardship of this beautiful planet God has gifted us and that has been underpinned by work with Langlands Moss LNR and still does. God has given us all talents and we should use these talents to serve His Purpose. I like the quote by St Theresa of Avila; ‘Christ has no body now, buts yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks with compassion into the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world’.

"As a Christian I feel we have a responsibility for stewardship of this beautiful planet God has gifted us and that has underpinned by work with Langlands Moss LNR and still does."

“The FOLM group over the years is and has been an all age community group of people with faith and people without faith but I am proud to have led them over the years. When I intimated last November, I wanted to take a back seat, the group honoured me in many ways including nominating me for the Glasgow Times Scotswoman of the Year 2021. I was totally unaware of this and when I got the initial phone call I thought it was a hoax. I never expected to be the winner. I think I was the most surprised person in the room! I still find it difficult to believe and feel very humble at this privilege accorded to me.

“When I started out on this conservation path I never thought of any reward at the end other than extending and protecting Langlands Moss Local Nature Reserve and I am so grateful to FOLM group who are the real heroes in their efforts over the years.”