MABEL Gott, head cook at a York girls’ school for 30 years, has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Mabel, who lives with her granddaughter, Ann Newbould, in Warthill, near York, was the 16th of 21 children when she was born 100 years ago in Shrewton, near Salisbury.

Although her birthday was yesterday, she will be celebrating at home on Saturday with her family, which includes her son, Bernard Cooper, who is in his 80s.

Mabel moved to York in 1926 when she was 16 to live with her older sister after her mother died.

She started work as a cleaner at an ice cream factory, now home to the Cornetto Court apartments development in Lawrence Street.

She met her husband, Robert Gott, whom she married in 1932, and worked for Duke’s Laundry, now King’s Laundry in Leeman Road, before she spent 30 years as head cook at Millmount Girls’ Grammar School, now part of Millthorpe School.

Mabel, who was widowed in 1967, continued to work as a housekeeper into the 1990s, when she was nearly 80. Her great-grandson, Lewis Newbould, 19, said that his great-grandmother’s strength came from her hard work.

He said: “She always says it’s been the hard work that’s kept her going and her determination. She was always gardening and cooking and was very good at cleaning and ironing. She irons anything.”