Town Centre Tour Shows Importance of Churches in Victorian Barry

A Welsh language history tour of Barry Town centre by the Victorian Barry Experience showed how religion shaped Holton Road.

The one-hour tour of ‘Barry’s Sacred Streets’ was led by local councillor Ian Johnson, who explained the origins of the many churches built around Holton Road, Wyndham Street and Court Road as the town grew at the end of the nineteenth century.

An investigation by one of Barry’s local papers found that almost a quarter of those going to church every week were attending Welsh language services.

Leading the history tour around Barry Town Centre, Cllr Johnson said “Barry’s churches are our closest remaining link with the town’s origins in the Victorian era.

“Some of the churches still exist, such as Salem Baptist on Beryl Road, or we still have the building, like the Tabernacle on King Square, while others have been demolished, such as the Holton Road Baptists or the Wesleyan Methodist Church on the corner of Llantwit Street and Holton Road.

“Fortunately, we now recognise the importance of maintaining our historical buildings in Barry, and look to avoid demolition wherever possible.

“Many of Barry’s churches started life by meeting in tents on spare pieces of land and then buying a ‘tin tabernacle’, a sort of demountable structure that could be sold on and moved, before eventually building a stone church or chapel.

“As Barry developed later than most other towns in Wales, all of the different religious groups wanted to set up here, and that is why the town centre was filled with both Welsh language and English language churches of all denominations.

“Many of these church leaders were also public figures in Barry, not least Rev Ben Evans, who was a local councillor and whose son Dan Evans owned Barry’s largest department store.”