Barry, Vale of Glamorgan

The area now occupied by Barry has seen human activity in many periods of history. Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age microlith flint tools have been found at Friars Point on Barry Island and near Wenvoe[5] and Neolithic or New Stone Age polished stone axe-heads were discovered in St. Andrews Major.[6] A cinerary urn (pottery urn buried with cremation ashes) was found on Barry Island during excavations of Bronze Age barrows[7][8] and two more were found in a barrow at Cold Knap Point.[9] A large defended enclosure or Iron Age promontory hillfort was located at the Bulwarks at Porthkerry[10] and there was evidence of the existence of an early Iron Age farmstead during construction of Barry College off Colcot Road.[11]

Nell's Point

In Roman times farmsteads existed on the site of Barry Castle and Biglis and there were verbal reports of discovery of a cemetery including lead coffins with scallop-shell decoration. Both St. Baruc's Chapel and St. Nicholas Church have re-used Roman bricks and tiles incorporated in their building fabric[12] and a Roman villa was discovered in Llandough.[13] In 1980 a Roman building consisting of 22 rooms and cellars in four ranges around a central courtyard was excavated at Glan-y-môr and is believed to be a third-century building associated with naval activity, maybe a supply depot.[14]

The Vikings launched raids in the area and Barry Island was known to be a raider base in 1087.[15] Flat Holm and Steep Holm islands in the Bristol Channel have their name Holm name derived from a Scandinavian word for an island in an estuary. The excavation of the Glan-y-môr site revealed the site had been reused in the 6th and 7th century and also between AD 830 and 950 as a dry stone sub-rectangular building with a turf or thatched roof.[12]

Barry Castle

Whitehouse Cottage

The main feature of the area at this time was the island in the Bristol Channel, separated from the mainland by a tidal estuary. It is described in Giraldus Cambrensis or Gerald of Wales' Itinerarium Cambriae ("Journey through Wales", 1191). He states that Barry derives its name from St. Baruc whose remains are deposited in a chapel on the island. The local noble family who owned the island and the adjoining estates took the name of de Barri from the island.[16]

Following the Norman conquest of England the area was divided into manors with the Barry area split into two large lordships, Penmark and Dinas Powys. Penmark was split into the sub-manors of Fonmon, West Penmark and Barry. Dinas Powys was split into the sub-manors of Cadoxton and Uchelolau ('Highlight').[17] The sub-manor of Barry was granted by the de Umfraville family to the de Barri family and the seat of the manor was Barry Castle, located on high ground overlooking the Bristol Channel, a site occupied in Roman times by a native homestead.[18] The castle was a small fortified manor house, built to replace an earlier earthwork. By the late 13th century the castle had two stone buildings on the east and west sides of a courtyard. Early in the 14th century the castle was strengthened by the addition of a large hall and gatehouse on its south side, the ruins of which are all that survive today. By now Barry had grown into a village and port with its own church and watermill but in the 14th century its population was drastically reduced by the Black Death and the consequences of the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr.[19] It took the population some 300 years to recover and once more hold the title of village, essentially a sparsely populated area with a few scattered farms and much of the land a marsh that a small river flowed through.[20] By 1622 the pattern of fields, where enclosure was almost complete, around Barry village was pretty much as it was to remain until the growth of the modern town. According to the 1673 hearth tax list the parish contained thirteen houses.

Whitehouse Cottage, the oldest existing inhabited house in modern Barry, dates from the late 1500s with the east end of the building added in around 1600. It overlooks the sea at Cold Knap.[21]

Barry Waterfront in July 2007

The viaduct at Porthkerry Park was once crossed many times daily by trains transporting coal from the valleys north of Bridgend

By 1871 the population of Barry was over 100, with 21 buildings, the new estate-owning Romilly family being involved in the buildup of the village but it remained a largely agricultural community.[12][22] It grew when it was developed as a coal port in the 1880s. The coal trade was growing faster than the facilities at Tiger Bay in Cardiff ever could and so a group of colliery owners formed the Barry Railway Company and chose to build the docks at Barry. Work commenced in 1884 and the first dock basin was opened in 1889 to be followed by two other docks and extensive port installations. The Barry Railway brought coal down from the South Wales Valleys to the new docks whose trade grew from one million tons in the first year, to over nine million tons by 1903. The port was crowded with ships and had flourishing ship repair yards, cold stores, flour mills and an ice factory. By 1913, Barry was the largest coal exporting port in the world. Barry Council Office and Library was completed in 1908.[23]

Barry Docks

Behind the docks rose the terraced houses of Barry which, with Cadoxton, soon formed a sizeable town. The railways which had played a major part in the development of the dock helped make Barry Island a popular resort. Barry Memorial Hall on Gladstone Road was inaugurated in November 1932, and obtained its name to honour those locals who lost their lives in World War I.[24]

During its industrial peak a number of ships sank off the Barry coast.

Following the rise of diesel and electric power on the UK railways, the marshalling yards at Barry Docks became the largest repository of steam engines awaiting scrapping in the UK. Dai Woodham owned the Woodham Brothers Scrap yard and he allowed rail preservation organisations to buy back the locomotives at the scrap value, allowing around 200 of the 300 locomotives to be saved for future generations, although during the years of storage many were vandalised or looted by souvenir hunters. When interviewed just before his death, Woodham was reluctant to take full credit for this and pointed out that the town of Barry with its redundant sidings was the major factor in allowing these locomotives to be saved.

From the 1536 Act of Union, Glamorgan was represented in parliament by one member, elected by the freeholders in the county.[25] In 1885, the constituency was split into three with the creation of East Glamorganshire, Mid Glamorganshire and South Glamorganshire. The Representation of the People Act 1918 created the Llandaff and Barry constituency.[26] Sir William Cope (Conservative) won the 1918 general election. Labour regained the seat at the 1929 general election when Charles Ellis Lloyd was returned but two years later lost the seat to the Conservatives' Patrick Munro.

Barry Police Station in the Jenner district

After Munro's death in 1942 Cyril Lakin won the by-election for the Conservatives. Arwyn Lynn Ungoed-Thomas (Labour) won the seat at the 1945 general election. The Llandaff and Barry constituency was abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1948.[27] and replaced by the Barry parliamentary constituency. This seat was first contested in the 1950 United Kingdom general election when Dorothy Rees (Labour) was elected. She lost the seat to Sir Herbert Raymond Gower (Conservative) at the 1951 general election. He held the seat until its abolition in 1983.[28]

It was replaced by the Vale of Glamorgan constituency which Sir Herbert Raymond Gower (Conservative) won at the 1983 general election. He remained as MP until his death in 1989. At the subsequent by-election the seat was won by John Smith (Labour). At the 1992 general election Walter Sweeney (Conservative) won it by only 19 votes. That made it the most marginal seat in Britain.[29] John Smith won it back at the 1997 general election. In the 2010 General election there was a 6.1% swing from labour to conservative. This has now handed the seat to Alun Cairns a (Conservative) MP.[30]

Barry Dock offices

Barry is part of the Vale of Glamorgan Senedd constituency[31] and part of the South Wales Central Senedd region.[32] Jane Hutt has been the Vale of Glamorgan Assembly member since the inception of the Senedd.

Barry was incorporated as a municipal borough by royal charter in September 1939. The Borough was the successor to Barry and Cadoxton Local Board (1888–1894) and Barry Urban District Council (1894–1939). The area covered by the borough comprised Barry, Cadoxton-juxta-Barry, Merthyr Dyfan and parts of Penmark, Porthkerry and Sully. In 1974, it was abolished and its functions taken over by the Vale of Glamorgan District Council and South Glamorgan County Council.[33]

The local council, Barry Town Council, is the largest town council in Wales. It has given Olympic silver medalist David Davies freedom of the town, the first freedom granted since 1958. The mayor since May 2017 is Nic Hodges who represents Baruc Ward and is a Plaid Cymru councillor, Barry's first Plaid Cymru mayor.[34] The town council has no overall control with Labour, Plaid Cymru and Conservative councillors.

The local unitary authority, created in 1995, is the Vale of Glamorgan Council which has its administrative headquarters in Barry. There are 23 wards electing 47 councillors, including eight wards in Barry (electing 18 county councillors) which comprise Baruc (2 councillors), Buttrills (2), Cadoc (3), Castleland (2), Court (2), Gibbonsdown (2), Dyfan (2) and Illtyd (3).

Pencoedtre High School

David Davies statue outside Barry Dock Offices

Barry has four secondary schools. Since 1993, Bryn Hafren and Barry Comprehensive School have worked together to provide the co-educational Barry Sixth Form. In July 2018, as part of the 'Transforming Secondary Education in Barry' scheme, both Barry Comprehensive School and Bryn Hafren closed their doors to make way for two new mixed-sex secondary schools which opened in September 2018. The old Barry Comprehensive School site has now become Whitmore High School and Bryn Hafren has now become Pencoedtre High School.[45]

• Whitmore High School – mixed 11–18
• Pencoedtre High School – mixed 11–18
• St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School – mixed 11–16
• Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg – Welsh-medium school, mixed 11–18

Primary education (5–11) in Barry is provided by a number of community, Welsh-language, and faith-based schools spread throughout the town.[46]

• Major Edgar Jones: 26 April 1950.[52]
• Sophie Ingle: 18 October 2018.[53]

• RAF St Athan: 1959.[54]