Recently arrived priest at St Mary’s RC Church, Central Avenue, is Father Anthony Cornforth. He has worked in places as far afield as Florida, Zambia and even Liverpool.
He is no stranger to Aycliffe as he was born in Darlington, had an uncle who lived in Shafto Way in the early sixties and travelled on the Darlington to Durham bus route frequently in the seventies.
He has had a varied career, having worked as a teacher of Classics (Latin and Greek) in Liverpool, where his love affair with Florida began. “We used to have two months holiday in the summer and every year I went to work in a parish in Clearwater, Florida, where the work was not onerous, students were far away and the sun shone all the time, except during thunderstorms and hurricanes!”
After the school that he taught in closed he qualified as a physiotherapist then moved to Hartlepool (adventurous for someone from Darlington!) and on to South Shields. “It was in South Shields that my life changed when I spent three months in Zambia, helping handicapped children to walk and overcome some ailments that had been left untreated.”
On returning to parish work in South Shields he continued his involvement with Zambia and in 1997 adopted a 14-year-old Zambian boy who went to school and college in South Tyneside for three years before returning home.
“When Andrew came it was a big change in my life and I will forever be grateful for it. He now has a family of his own although sadly one of his daughters died at the age of two in 2015, something all too common in Zambia.”
Six years in the West End of Newcastle and four years in Washington then brought him back to his roots in Durham. “It really was like coming home. All of my family still live in Darlington and it is great to find myself in familiar territory for once, after moving.”
As well as looking after the parish of St Mary in Aycliffe he is also parish priest of St Thomas’ Shildon and currently is overseeing churches in Ferryhill, Coundon and Chilton. “When the railway workshops in Darlington closed in the sixties, work was transferred to Shildon but my father lost his job with British Rail as a result, but I am growing to forgive Shildon and have always had a soft spot for Aycliffe!”
