Town in Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
Barry
A seaside town with a Butlin's past and a Gavin & Stacey present, Barry grew from a tiny village into the world's busiest coal port in a single generation.
Key information
- County
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Nation
- Wales
- Population
- About 54,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Barry Island, Gavin & Stacey, a record-breaking coal port and the Woodham Brothers scrapyard
- What locals are called
- Barrians
- Famous people
- Ruth Jones, Dai Woodham, David Davies
- Football clubs
- Barry Town United (Jenner Park)
About Barry
From a tiny village to the world's busiest coal port
In the 1870s Barry was a quiet farming parish with a ruined castle and a few hundred people at most. Within a few decades it was one of the busiest places in the Welsh economy. The cause was coal. The South Wales valleys were producing more than Cardiff's crowded docks could handle, and the coalowner David Davies of Llandinam decided to build a rival outlet. The Barry Railway Company was set up in 1884, and Barry Dock opened in 1889. It worked spectacularly. By 1913 Barry was shipping more than 11 million tons of coal a year, which made it the biggest coal-exporting port in the world. The town grew almost overnight to match, with terraces of workers' houses, chapels and shops spreading across the farmland. The grand Barry Docks Offices, finished in 1900, still stand as a reminder of how confident the place was.
The island that isn't an island
Barry Island is joined to the mainland and has been for well over a century, but nobody ever bothered to rename it. Its name comes from St Baruc, a early Christian figure said to have been buried on the island, which is also where the town gets its own name. The island's real fame is Whitmore Bay, a wide sandy beach that became a day-trip favourite for the valleys. Trains brought families down from the mining towns in huge numbers, and the funfair, arcades and ice-cream stalls grew up to serve them. In 1966 Billy Butlin opened a holiday camp here, and for three decades it drew families from across Britain. Barry Island Pleasure Park still runs rides on the seafront, and the promenade is still the place for chips, candyfloss and a 99 with a flake.
The scrapyard that saved the steam age
One of Barry's strangest claims to fame is a place where trains went to die and, in the end, were saved. In the 1960s, British Railways was sending its steam engines to be cut up as it moved over to diesel. Woodham Brothers' scrapyard at Barry Docks bought hundreds of them. Dai Woodham found it easier and more profitable to scrap railway wagons first, so the locomotives sat rusting on the sidings. That delay gave enthusiasts time to raise money. In all, 213 locomotives left the yard for preservation, and many now run on heritage railways around the country. The last one left in 1989. Some of the best-known engines on those lines were rescued from Barry's sidings, and the town now has its own heritage railway at Barry Island.
Nessa, Smithy and the Gavin & Stacey effect
For a generation of viewers, Barry means Gavin & Stacey. The sitcom, co-written by Ruth Jones and James Corden, began in 2007 and made the town's seafront, arcade and streets familiar far beyond Wales. Fans still head for Barry Island to find the arcade where Nessa worked, and to have their photograph taken at spots from the show. The programme returned for a Christmas special in 2019 and ended with a final episode in 2024, so the pilgrimage shows no signs of stopping. Town and show have become so linked that locals are used to being asked about Nessa within minutes of meeting a visitor.
Dinosaur footprints, castle ruins and a football giant-killer
Away from the funfair, Barry has some real surprises. At Bendricks, on the shore, there are dinosaur footprints preserved in the rock that are more than 200 million years old. Cold Knap, with its pebbly beach and sheltered lake, has a quieter feel than Whitmore Bay, and the cliffs and coastal paths around it are good walking country. The ruined Barry Castle, a fortified manor from the medieval period, stands inland as a reminder that the town's story began long before the docks. On the football front, Barry Town United play at Jenner Park. The club had a remarkable run in the late 1990s and early 2000s, winning league titles in the Welsh domestic game and making a name for itself in European qualifying ties.