Mrs Helen Margaret Bott B.E.M. recalled affectionately by Ben Brown, who recalls how she would ride around the town on her sit-up-and-beg-bike, with her black dress appearing to flow behind her. She was out in all weathers, delivering the parish magazine of St. Johns Church, where her husband Arthur had been vicar until his death in 1939. University educated Mrs Bott was a member of the Mothers Union and St. John Ambulance Brigade, she was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1966 and granted the freedom of Stockton two years later. Dubbed the Angel of Stockton, she died in 1981 at the age of 97, after which a home for mentally handicapped people at Elm Tree was named Helen Bott House. Photograph and information courtesy of Benny Brown, Australia. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
I remember being a the opening of the St Johns School which is not far from where we lived in Hawthorne rd Primrose Hill with my mother. I must have been about 5 at the time and seem to remember it was 1939.. I think Father Bott as he was called by the locals must have died not long after this opening ceremony. .
Mrs Bott was a regular visitor to my Mother Hilda Brown at 21 Hawthorne Road, Primrose Hill . My mother always provided Mrs Bott with a tea and Tea cakes. Mrs Bott loved her Tea Cakes and I know she lived a very frugal life at home in Durham Street, She gave to many and never really enjoyed the fruits of luxury living, she was a magnificent example to all who knew her of how to treat your neighbour, she never asked for a great deal but gave so much to others.
Mrs Bott was my godmother, I lived next door to her in Durhan Street with my mother, father, grandma and grandad. I spent many hours in her house just talking, she always had a magazine or book for me and a treat of some kind. My mum gave her dinner twice a week which I always took in to her, she remembered me in a small way in her will when she died ..there will never be another like her. I do believe that sit up and beg bike of hers is in Preston park museum.
I also remember Mrs bott in all weather visiting the residents of the old peoples home St Annes. Lots of people knew it as the work house part of it still stands on portrack lane. When Mrs Bott visited we always gave her her tea before she left on her bike, this would have been 1960″s.
Green Tomatoes and St John’s School Strange things to grow in the garden, well my dad Gordon Parkin did just that, green tomatoes and the greener and bigger the better. After ripening as he would say they were harvested and put in to carrier bags to go to Daventry Ave, Ragworth where my Auntie Emily and Uncle George Parkin lived with my three cousins Michael, Bernard and Dennis.(the latter three are all now in South Africa). On the menu was Green Tomato Chutney, my Aunt Emily did a lot of baking, cooking, jam making and the like and going down there from Roseworth was always a treat for our taste buds and tums, we left with a lump of toffee on a stick which she used to make and sell to the local children. My Uncle George then and for many years before and after was the caretaker for St John’s in Ragworth. Roy.
Sadly, Alan, it seems to be a romantic myth. The lists of passengers of the Titanic”s voyage do not include any Botts. However, according to Crockford”s (1934) Arthur Bott does seem to have spent some time in America in 1911 – 1912, in between being curate at Easington (1906-11) and curate of St. James, Darlington (1912-14). He came to St. John”s in 1914.
I have a very vivid recollection of an incident which must have been about 1939 when I was 4 years old of Mrs Bott coming up to me in the courtyard of St Johns Church near the Gas Works and giving me a fruit I had never ever seen before, Mrs Bott explained to me it was Pomegranate and showed me how to pick the individual seeds out of the fruit with a pin I had a great time with that Pomegranate. Mrs Bott also hosted the tea and cakes in the Church Hall as I remember. I have never understood why the St Johns Church was demolished along with its wonderful Church Hall which hosted many gatherings of the local population.
Not 100% sure and probably could be verified by Titanic buffs – when I was younger the story around Primrose Hill Estate was that Mr & Mrs Bott travelled on the Titanic. Not sure if they only sailed on first part of voyage or were in fact “survivors”. It was said to be a delayed honeymoon. Fact or fiction?
Thank you Tim, Janice and Ben for your memories of Mrs Bott, formerly Helen Margaret Jefferys of Hill Deverill in Wiltshire. She was a distant cousin of my grandfather, Frank Haines Jefferys and you have given me a few more leaves on the family tree. It is nice to hear of the good work of a relative, no matter how distant, and the respect with which she is remembered.
I attended St. John”s C of E School in Ragworth during the late 50″s and early 60″s where Mrs. Bott was a regular and much respected visitor. As I remember, there was a large plaque on the wall of the main hall to commemorate Arthur Bott as the founder of the school. Does anyone remember this? Mrs. Bott was also a regular visitor to the patients of the geriatric department of North Tees Hospital and my mother (a nurse) got to know her quite well. She used to say that it was her duty to visit the “old” people, even though she was twenty years older than some of the patients she visited. When my mother finished her shifts, usually around 8 pm most evenings, my father would collect her and also take Mrs. Bott home. This gesture was always rewarded at Christmastime with a small gift.
Thank you, Benny, for those memories of Mrs. Bott. I remember that she often appeared at church in her St. John”s Ambulance uniform. I have done a little research myself on her life before they came to Stockton. She was a farmer”s daughter, Helen Margaret Jefferys, born in Hill Deverill, Wiltshire in 1884, and eventually went to a small and seemingly, exclusive boarding school in Liscard, Cheshire. I haven”t discovered which university she attended, but she and Arthur Bott married in the summer of 1910 in Warminster. Arthur Bott was born in Longbridge Deverill, only a few miles away. His father died before he was 3 and he lived with his mother and went to school in Warminster until he attended Durham University. I haven”t yet discovered where they went before Stockton, but I”m working on it. There is also the mystery of where Arthur John Bott died. I can only (so far) find a suitably dated death in Newbury Berks. Was our Arthur a racing man? Was he looking at another parish? Anybody know?