I Was Born In Thornaby

A Memory of Thornaby-on-Tees.

My name is Valerie (Connet) Acuff. I was born in 1940 at 24 Langley Ave. which was the home of my mother's sister, Nan Powell and her husband, Lol. My parents were John and Betty Connet. My mother was formerly Betty Bellamy from Stockton. After my father was discharged from the RAF he was a photographer and worked for Forrest Wompra in Middlesborough. When I was a year old my family moved to 4 St Leonard Street where we lived until I was 7. I well remember nights in the air raid shelter with the mums and children on the road; playing in the road during the day unafraid of traffic because there was none and attending Westbury St. School. My best friend was Norman Bayley who lived at that time at 10 Lyndhurst St. Neither of our streets exists today but I grew up with many happy memories of my childhood on that road. The most traumatic was losing the ration book on the way to the grocers on Mansfield Rd, and the problems my mother had getting it replaced. My mother was a local officer in the Salvation Army and I remember well Uncle Sam and Mrs Appleby. At the age of 7 my family emigrated to the USA and it was many years before I returned to live in Lancashire.