Barry Island Railway Station, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan

History

Constructed 1896 by the Barry Railway Company (BRC). The BRC was first incorporated as the Barry Dock and Railway Company in 1884 to provide a competitive alternative to Cardiff Docks for the transportation to sea of coal from the Rhondda. The company changed its name to Barry Railway Company in 1891 but it retained its control of Barry Docks.

The BRC also operated passenger services to Cardiff and established the line extension to Barry Island in conjunction with the growth of Barry as a seaside leisure destination. The island had from the beginning of the C19 been used as a seaside resort but by the close of the C19 it was becoming increasingly developed to cater for visitors. The line extension to the island was opened on 3 August 1896.

The following year Lord Windsor of Friars Point House began to develop the foreshore of Whitmore Bay with the construction of a Promenade and Pleasure Grounds. In 1909 he gifted the land between the high watermark of Whitmore Bay and Friars Road to the Barry Urban District Council who then drew up plans for further development of the island primarily as a democratic seaside resort aimed at attracted the working classes of the industrial areas of south Wales. The First World War delayed this but by the early 1920s the Council were able to bring about their improvements and the island quickly became a popular resort with crowds of around 100,000 people visiting on bank holidays and summer weekends. With the Railways Act of 1921 railway companies were grouped together, with the BRC becoming part of the Great Western Railway (GWR). In 1929 the GWR remodelled the Barry Island station with 2 platforms added to cater for the increase in visitors to the resort. The surviving ticket office added to W of the station buildings belongs to this phase, it has a GWR cast iron ticket vendor’s screen.

The station buildings at Barry Island were refurbished to become the Barry Railway Heritage Centre c2010. The Barry War Museum began as a temporary exhibition in 2012 and grew to permanently occupy most of the building, changing the emphasis of the Heritage Centre.

Exterior

Railway station in Jacobethan style, red brick with limestone and yellow brick dressings. Slate roof with contrasting fishtail banding, decorative ridge tiles and moulded brick stack. Large pane sash windows, 4-pane and 2-pane, timber panelled doors.

Main S elevation to Station Approach, comprising central entrance range with advanced outer wings with stepped shaped gables; continuous cornice and plinth courses. Central range has 3 sets of paired windows with 2 over 4 panes, divided by high stone transoms, 2 of them flanking the doorway to the right with 3-pane light over. Projecting brackets and ironwork of canopy survives, canopy cover lost. Outer wing to left with paired small windows set high, central rectangular plaque with ‘B.R.’. Right projecting bay similar with tripartite windows with high transom and 2-pane over 4-pane windows and plaque with ‘1896’. Return to right with two windows and continuation of platform screen wall, wide arched double door and railings to front.

Attached to left wing is a projecting flat timber canopy and then GWR ticket office, gap now infilled. GWR ticket office in the same style, gabled to Station Approach, gable stack and projecting 3-bay canopy to left over GWR cast iron vendors screen in left hand bay. Circular 4-pane window in platform side gable survives as a frame though glass is lost. Roof has elevated ridge section with continuous ribbons of small square paned windows on either side lighting the interior.

Platform elevation dominated by wide double-pitch timber and glass canopy on supporting cast iron columns and sub-structure, curving slightly with the track and platform. Columns bear manufacturers mark ‘J. Lysaght, Bristol. 1896’. Station building similarly detailed to front elevation; right side single door with 2-pane light over flanked by windows with 2 over 4 panes, central double door to former ticketing hall with 3-pane light over flanked by paired windows corresponding exactly to the front elevation, left side double door with 3-pane light over followed by high 2-pane windows to rest rooms.

Interior

The earlier Barry Railway building retains original internal layout, with a small internal window for serving tickets survives in the partition wall between the original ticketing hall and the offices in the right wing, with a wooden shutter on the staff side. The left wing contains rest rooms with original décor; the ladies on the street side and gents on the platform side are separated by an archway, originally open to the platform but now enclosed. The later GWR ticket office retains a booth around the ticket vendor’s screen. Two squat queen’s post roof trusses are exposed, set below the rooflights.

Reasons for Listing

Included for its special architectural interest as a good example of a late C19 railway station building that has survived relatively intact with key historic alterations from the GWR phase and the growth of Barry Island as a holiday resort. It has historic interest as an integral component of the resort at Barry Island, developed during the inter-war period as a seaside destination.

External Links

Cadwr Listing

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