The young laboratory worker finally clicked – after colleagues hinted – that the farmer delivering peas to the Hartley’s processing plant ‘has got his eye on you’.
“He used to come to a little window and check in,” recalls Pam Potts. “He was bringing his peas to be processed and was checking everything was in order.
“And that’s when I first met him – through a window”.
One night, however, the young farmer delivered his peas, went home, spruced himself up, and returned in his father’s car.
“He sat outside waiting for me,” says Pam who went onto date, court and three years later marry Ralph Potts.
The couple have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and are living in “blissful” retirement in Whittlesey, a few miles from the Coates farm they left seven years ago.
Pam recalls settling into farming life and becoming “a dutiful housewife, turning my hand to anything needing to be done”.
The couple had two children – Gregory and Stuart – and then, in the mid 1990s, with a bit more time on her hands in 1996 Pam became a local councillor.
She joined Fenland District Council serving Coates and Eastrea and from 2004 to 2007 she was council chairman.
Pam also chaired the NE Cambs Conservative Association for three years and at a time when a new Parliamentary candidate was being sought.
Her initial instinct proved right and Steve Barclay became candidate and then MP.
She stepped aside from politics 10 years ago and “after I had a serious illness and decided I couldn’t any longer do the work justice.
“However, I like to think I did everything I was asked of as a councillor”,
Others clearly felt so, too, as she became the first mayor of Whittlesey.
And she was presented with the British Empire Medal in 2012 for services to the community – one of three occasions she enjoyed a visit to Buckingham Palace.
And she is proud, too, of the card she received on her 60th anniversary from The Queen.
Pam has many happy memories – of places, events and people she has met.
“Councillor Mac Cotterell was my mentor and someone for whom I had great respect – he was marvellous and keeping me in the loop and rang me every Sunday until he was taken ill”.
She also has fond memories of Hugh Duberley, a former lord lieutenant, who she describes as “a great gentleman who gave me valuable advice”.
On their anniversary Pam and Ralph took 32 friends out to lunch – but on the anniversary itself sat quietly at home looking through presents and cards.
“We actually spent part of the day looking at our wills,” she recalled. “At our time of life that’s what some of us have to do.”
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