Barry Dock to Town Centre audio heritage trail

This audio heritage trail includes some unforgettable characters from the 1890s to 2020 – like Harry the hairdresser and find out about Kel and Rhys’s saucy encounter. Sit next to a Barry bobby on a bench in King Square and hear about his wild night over the Island. Even in Victorian times, Mrs Grundy’s Jottings column in the Barry Dock newspaper would keep the community abreast of the latest gossip. Although it was often inferred and with names omitted, there would be no mistaking who was being spoken about.

Begin this audio heritage trail as you exit Barry Dock train station and turn left along Dock View Road. This was the first part of town that sailors met with, and had its heyday before the First World War. On the opposite side of the road you will see a red brick retirement complex built in the 1980s. They were built after Culley’s Hotel was demolished, which included the infamous Chain Locker, known as the longest bar in the world! Listen to Harry, a Master Mariner, address a drunk sailor on the side of the road (is that you?!) The year is 1901.

(Terms you may be unfamiliar with: ‘shebeen’ – an illegal pub set up in someone’s house; ‘crimping’ or ‘shanghaiing’ – when a man or sailor was kidnapped to work on a ship.)

Before reaching the junction with Thompson Street, look out to your left across the Docks. Look at the Dock Office and imagine German bombers overhead bombing the docks in 1941 which smashed its windows. With sirens wailing overhead, listen to two boys playing, pretending to be fighter planes. This is a time of rationing, so they have a keen interest in where they can get sweets and treats!

Turn right onto Thompson St, keeping on the right side of the road until you reach a footpath between two blocks of redbrick housing. This footpath is where Travis Street used to be. The bottom section of Thompson St was demolished in 1972, which is also where the “all nations” Domino Club was set up in 1947. Catch a taxi ride to hear more about the history of Thompson Street. Continue walking up Thompson Street.

Turn left at the junction of Thompson Street with Holton Road and keep on the left. It is 1977, the Jubilee year, and the Queen and Prince Philip are visiting Barry on their tour of Britain. Everyone is very excited, but none as much as Alison and Dave who strike up a conversation with you while waiting in the crowd.

Keep walking until you reach Lombard Street, a side street on the right. The corner building no.33, with the smart Portland stone façade, was a bank and the street name is linked with banking and the City of London. On the opposite corner was Joseph Janner Furnisher, whose son became a Labour MP and life peer – Sir Barnett Janner. There were plenty of wealthy people in Barry when the export of coal was at its peak in 1913. In the next recording you’ll hear two well to do and well-educated girls playing hopscotch talking about the time that one of them, Eirene, met Mrs Pankhurst. That would be Eirene White, future Baroness White!

Walk a little further down Holton Road and cross the road when you see the Fish ‘n’ Chip shop on your right. By the 1970s the docks were busier importing goods rather than exporting, and one of the main imports were bananas. Listen to this story to find out what visitor hitched a ride on one of the Geest boats!

You have reached the last block of shops originally built on Holton Road at the end of the 19th century, further down are modern additions. Turn around and walk back up Holton Road. After the junction with Lombard St cross the road to the hairdresser. Imagine you are sitting in the hair salon having your hair cut by Harry, the chatty hairdresser. He loves a gossip and to tease his colleague Kel. The year is 2020 just before the pandemic – will it feel like another era?

Continue up Holton Rd, past the junction with Thompson Street and on your left there is a café. You can either listen to the recording as you keep walking or why not stop for a coffee and listen inside? Imagine you are a teenager sitting in a café with your friend and your order has just arrived at your table. She seems in a hurry but has lots of gossip to tell you so you’d better listen carefully or you’ll miss it!

The café at no. 51 was once the Barry Dock Photographic Studio which also offered a picture framing service. Next door at no. 53 were wine merchants Griffin & Davies. Keep walking up Holton Road past Evans Street and then cross the road to Marshall’s Butchers.  The year is 1905. You’ve noticed a poster in the window about a competition to guess the weight of a pig. The butcher comes out of his shop to tell you about it.

A Barry butcher really did hold this competition, but they were located on Upper Holton Road on the corner with Lower Guthrie St, nos.254 – 258, and the winner who made the best guess would win the ham. A true story, with embellishments!

Keep walking up Holton Road until you reach Heron Foods/B&M (102-106 Holton Rd). This used to be Woolworth’s, which opened here in 1921, but moved in 1969 to what was the new development just beyond King Square. The year is 1923. You are queuing behind Dorothy when she sees Gladys and calls her over. They are old friends, since childhood, having grown up together in Barry. They gossip about a girl who has a new job at Woolworths which Gladys does not think is respectable!

Cross the road to Spawn Point and look up at where the shop sign should be. Can you see a faint ‘dan evans’? All 6 bays on this block eventually became the Dan Evans department store but the first premises bought in 1905 was no.81 (where Ramsden’s is now), extending to no.83 in 1908, no.85 in 1912 and the corner property in 1917 selling china. There were other Dan Evans stores on Holton Rd too but it was here that they sold TVs.

Imagine you are a child and you are with your friends looking into the shop window which has the latest gadget on display – A TELEVISION! Jostling to see, you compete as to who has the biggest TV and who has the best story! It is 1953, the year of the coronation.

Keep walking up Holton Road until you reach the corner with Ty Newydd Rd. This corner building (nos 99-101) was another Dan Evans store from about 1945 specialising in paint and wallpaper, then menswear from the late 60s. In 1962 Dan Evans bought the shop directly opposite, where Card Factory is now. This shop sold womenswear with a tea room decked out with Welsh tapestry wool furnishings. Listen to Joyce and Marianne, two young shop assistants, as they change the window display.

Walk across to King Square and find a bench to sit either on the Square or in Central Park. Imagine a policeman sits down next to you. He’s just finished his night shift and he has a tale to tell!

Fast forward to 2020 and King Square was the location of a Black Lives Matter protest. Hangout with your skateboarding friends and find out what’s up!

For the final story, walk to the ‘new’ development on Holton Road which was built at the end of the 60s. This is where Mrs Wilson’s Temperance Bar once stood (roughly where Poundland is now). The Temperance Movement was concerned with the level of drunkenness and alcoholism in society leading to poverty, violence, and family break-up. They advocated for abstinence and stricter regulation of pubs. The movement was very active in Barry, many hotels lost their licences. Imagine you see Mrs Wilson standing outside her Temperance Bar (137 Holton Rd) in 1899, and join Mrs Cheverley and Mrs Jones in their gossip and putting the world to rights!

Next door to the Temperance Bar at 139 was the Barry Dock Steam Bakery.

To get back to Barry Docks Station in a loop, continue walking up Holton Road past the old Windsor Hotel, opened in 1896, which is now social housing. Opposite you’ll see St Mary’s Church which was never completed and is still missing a tower and other parts. This section of Holton Road from the church up to ‘The Towers’ was known as ‘doctor’s row’ due to the number of surgeries here. ‘The Towers’ was the residence of Dr Livingstone who moved here with his family in 1898.

Opposite, on the corner with Castleland Street was the Amy Evans Hospital, which she established in the former hotel as “a voluntary hospital for the destitute sick and dying”.

To reach Barry Docks Station, walk down to the end of Castleland Street and turn right. At the end of Castleland Street you will see a fine red brick building – this was the Seamen’s Institute.

If you would like to know who the cast and crew are behind this audio heritage trail please download the list here: Cast & Crew

Thank you for completing the trail! If you enjoyed that, find more suggested walks here.