Valerie Thornton attended the Byam Shaw School of Art in 1949, and then the Regent Street Polytechnic, 1950-53.

In 1954 she had an eight month residency with Stanley William Hayter at his Atelier 17 in Paris and on her return bought her first printing press.

In 1965 she was a founder member of the Printmakers Council. Married in 1966, when her husband, Michael Chase, was appointed curator of the Minories in Colchester, they moved first to Essex before setting in Suffolk.

Architectural subjects inspired most of her printmaking. On wove. Faintly mount-stained. Exhibited at the Royal Academy 1975.