Barry Island

Andy Croll

Description

Barry Island was one of the most cherished leisure spaces in twentieth-century south Wales, the playground of generations of working-class day-trippers. This book considers its rise as a seaside resort and reveals a history that is much more complex, lengthy and important than has previously been recognized. As conventionally told, the story of the Island as tourist resort begins in the 1890s, when the railway arrived in Barry. In fact, it was functioning as a watering place by the 1790s. Yet decades of tourism produced no sweeping changes. Barry remained a district of ‘bathing villages’ and hamlets, not a developed urban resort. As such, its history challenges us to rethink the category of ‘seaside resort’ and forces us to re-evaluate Wales’s contribution to British coastal tourism in the ‘long nineteenth century’. It also underlines the importance of visitor agency; powerful landowners shaped much of the Island’s development but, ultimately, it was the working-class visitors who turned it into south Wales’s most beloved tripper resort.

Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Author’s Note
Introduction
Chapter 1 ‘Much Frequented During the Bathing Season’: Barry Island and Welsh Coastal Tourism, c. 1780-c. 1860
Chapter 2 ‘That Favourite Place’: Cardiff’s Bathing Resort, c. 1860-1877
Chapter 3 Visitors ‘Mercilessly’ Turned Away: The Island Closed, 1878-1884
Chapter 4 Reclaimed, 1884-c.1890
Chapter 5 An ‘El Dorado Where Soft Winds Blow’: Resort Boosterism Flourishes in the 1890s
Chapter 6 ‘Awake ye Sluggards!’ Resort Development Flounders, c. 1900-1914
Chapter 7 ‘They Sweep Down on the Place and Take Possession of It’: Trippers Triumphant, c. 1890-c. 1910
Chapter 8 Barry-on-Sea? The Tripper Resort Consolidated, 1914-c.1965
Conclusion
Bibliography

Sujets

• Histoire
• South Wales
• Great Britain
• History
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786835888
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

B ARRY I SLAND

B ARRY I SLAND
T HE M AKING OF A S EASIDE P LAYGROUND , c .1790– c .1965

Andy Croll
© Andy Croll, 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to The University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78683-586-4
e-ISBN 978-1-78683-588-8
The right of Andy Croll to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Cover image: Edwardian views from Friars Point to Nell’s Point, across Whitmore Bay, Barry Island. Taken from ‘The South Wales Holiday Resort’ advertising poster, by permission of the National Archives MT10/1288.
To Rachel, Tabbi and Oscar
C ONTENTS

Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Author’s note
Introduction
Chapter 1 ‘[M]uch frequented during the bathing season’ Barry Island and Welsh coastal tourism, c .1790– c .1860
Chapter 2 That ‘favourite place’ Cardiff’s bathing resort, c .1860–1877
Chapter 3 Visitors ‘mercilessly’ turned away The island closed, 1878–1884
Chapter 4 Reclaimed, 1884– c .1890
Chapter 5 An ‘El Dorado . . . where soft winds blow’ Resort boosterism flourishes in the 1890s
Chapter 6 ‘[A]wake ye sluggards!’ Resort development flounders, c .1900–1914
Chapter 7 They ‘sweep down on the place and take possession of it’ Trippers triumphant, c .1890– c .1910
Chapter 8 Barry-on-Sea? The tripper resort consolidated, 1914– c .1965
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I HAVE ACCUMULATED innumerable debts during the writing of this book. Various colleagues (former and current) in the School of Humanities at the University of South Wales have helped in myriad ways over the years. A full list would take me even further beyond my agreed word count, but a severely abridged version must include Jonathan Durrant, Bev Farr, Jane Finucane, Tim John, Tim Jones, Rachel Lock-Lewis, Darren Macey, Clive Mulholland, Naomi Preston, Andy Thompson, Diana Wallace and Chris Williams.
I would particularly like to thank Alan Jones, Gareth Williams and Alun Withey for several fruitful conversations about Barry’s resort history. Dai Smith got me interested in the history of leisure in the first place and his interest in this project convinced me that studying Barry Island’s past was a worthwhile pursuit. Special thanks are due to Rob Eva, Scot McNaughton and Steve McCarthy for their encouragement over the years. Steve made sure that I never ran out of pens.
I am grateful to the staff of Barry library, the Glamorgan Archives, the National Archives, the British Library and the library of the University of South Wales for all their help in tracking down a wealth of reading material. Julia Skinner at Francis Frith helped locate maps. Paul Johnson, image library manager at the National Archives, provided invaluable assistance, as did James Franklin at the Ordnance Survey and Penny Icke at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Tony Woolway at Media Wales and Chris Adams at the Manchester Evening News helped with photos of Whitmore Bay in the 1960s. Thanks to Gerwyn Davies at University of South Wales’s Print and Design Department for his map-making skills. I am indebted to the team at the National Library of Wales responsible for the ‘Welsh Newspapers Online’ resource. I began researching the newspapers in the analogue era. Just when I thought I had completed the newspaper research, 15 million digitized articles from 120 Welsh newspapers suddenly appeared online. It proved to be a game-changer. Without that rich, fully searchable data set, the argument in chapter 1 could never have materialized, Lord Windsor’s shutdown of the island in the later 1870s – an event of the greatest significance – would have passed me by, and a whole sand-dune’s worth of extra data would have gone unread. The digitization of newspaper sources promises to change our view of resort development in the nineteenth century quite fundamentally. It allows us to find scattered references to the smaller ‘bathing villages’ that have, to date, largely been missed by historians. As a result, the true significance of the smaller resort – in Wales, but elsewhere, too – may become clearer over the coming years.
Laura Williams introduced me to her grandfather, Edward Evans. I am enormously grateful to them both for their time and for Mr Evans’s recollections of happy days spent at Whitmore Bay as a child in the late 1930s.
Staff at the University of Wales Press have been unfailingly helpful. The comments of the anonymous reader have been extremely helpful. I am grateful to them for their insightful suggestions. Thanks to Dafydd Jones, Elin Lewis, Siân Chapman and the design team for producing such an attractive looking volume, and to Nic Nicholas for compiling the index. Sarah Lewis must be singled out for especial praise. I missed more deadlines than I care to remember, but she remained calm, patient and supportive throughout. Without her willingness to tolerate my many re-writes, this book would never have made it from my computer hard drive to the bookshelf.
Bill Jones’s contribution to this book has been immense. He has read various drafts, provided sage advice, made critical editorial interventions, furnished me with references and happily taken on the role of the Great Encourager throughout. For all that, plus the musical inter-ludes, the friendship and many a pleasant afternoon spent at the former bathing village of Aberthaw mulling over the finer points of resort history, I am deeply grateful. Likewise, Chris Evans deserves a special mention for his support and friendship over the long years of this project. He, too, has read an earlier version of the manuscript. The final product is immeasurably better for the contributions of both Bill and Chris. Sadly, neither of them can be held responsible for any of the shortcomings that remain.
Finally, my greatest thanks go to my family. In Cornwall, the Bindings – Anne, James, Jake and Tom – are all beach aficionados. I thank them for their warm support and hope they might enjoy reading about a beach they visited once on a bitterly cold winter’s day. Denis and Maureen McCarthy have been keen supporters of the project from the outset. They have also shared their remembrances of post-war Barry Island. An historian of Whitmore Bay could hope for no better parents-in-law.
Having been brought up in Cornwall, there is no shortage of photographs of a younger version of me on various beaches, from Gyllyngvase to Godrevy. Only one photo shows me on a non-Cornish beach. It was snapped when I was two years old by my late dad, Harry. I am pictured sitting on the sands of Barry Island with my mum, Mary. I am eternally grateful to them both for introducing me to Whitmore Bay, for a childhood full of happy memories (lots of them beach-related) and for so much else besides.
I have been researching Barry Island’s history for more than a decade. I have spent countless hours strolling across its sand dunes, reclining on its headlands and paddling at its water’s edge. I’ve spent even longer exploring it in my imagination, in the company of sea-bathing Georgians, day-tripping mid-Victorians and all the other visitors who headed for Whitmore Bay over the years. Life has been a beach – perhaps for a little too long. But I’ve been fortunate beyond words to have had Rachel, Tabbi and Oscar McNaughton alongside me throughout. Without their forbearance and love, this book would never have seen the light of day. That is why it is dedicated to them.
I LLUSTRATIONS

1. ‘The South Wales Holiday Resort’: advertising poster. © The National Archives, ref. MT10/1288. ( see colour section ).
2. Map showing principal places in south Wales named in the text.
3. Map of Welsh coastal resorts mentioned in the text.
4. Map of Barry town and the Island, 1938. OS © Crown copyright 2020. ( see colour section ).
5. ‘The Kingdom of the Chip’: Whitmore Bay, Whitsun 1963. © Western Mail / Media Wales Ltd.
6. Uncertain times for Barry dock: Barry and District News , 10 May 1946.
7. Barmouth beach, with Cader Idris in the background.
8. Map of the Barry district, 1833. © The Francis Frith Collection.
9. Map of Barry Island, 1873. Glamorgan Archives: DSA/2/39 – 1873.
10. Lord Windsor: Robert Windsor-Clive (1857–1923) ( see colour section ).
11. View of the new dock and surrounding district: The Graphic , 27 July 1889.
12. Aerial view Friars Point House, 1921. RCAHMW © Crown copyright 2020.
13. Map of Barry town and the Island, 1898. © The Frances Frith Collection.
14. Aerial view of Whitmore Bay with the dock and the town behind, May 1933. RCAHMW © Crown copyright 2020.
15. The S.S. Valsesia stranded at Friars Point in August 1926.
16. Penarth pier, c .1900.
17. View of the sands and Nell’s Point, early twentieth century ( see colour section ).
18. Barry Island pleasure pier: cartoon, Barry and District News , 14 December 1945 ( see colour section ).
19. Pleasure boats and paddlers at the water’s edge, c .1910.
20.