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Barry Island - photos, history, railway and memories

My first holiday was in Barry Butlins. Me, mam, dad and my two sisters travelled there in a relatives camper van-dropped off at the front gates and after getting all booked in went off to find our chalet. I was 13 at the time and I was imagining a plush trendy place to stay but what greeted us was sometheing I will remember for many years.

The bunk bed rocked back and fore and smelt fausty. There were so many staines on the furninshings it left me traumatised. However, it was our first family holiday and after joining the kids clubs and putting on a really Welsh accent because everyone else had a brumy or some sort of English accent I just wanted to fit in (what I didn't realise at that age was that my Welsh accent was already there I just didn' know it) I also told the other kids that I came from miles and miles away when in reality I came from just outside Caerphilly.

I had a fab time even though we had very little money then my parents made sure we had fun on the beach by my dad organising beach games with the other kids.

If I told my kids now that we were going to Barry on holiday they would think I was insane and embarrassing.

Barry has some good childhood memories its nice to drift back and remember those days in the 70's.....:cool:
 
I smile at how small, pokey and rumpled the old fair looks when I drive past it now. When I was a kid it was a huge, glittery (albeit urine-smelling), flawless edifice of fun. I'm sure, though, that to adults it was as grotty then as it is now to me. It's amazing how perceptions change over time. :cool:

I particularly liked the fun house with its carpet-lined revolving tube and the vertical slide ("shoes off!"), as well as the aforementioned Traum Boot. Happy memories indeed.
 
bendeus said:
I smile at how small, pokey and rumpled the old fair looks when I drive past it now. When I was a kid it was a huge, glittery (albeit urine-smelling), flawless edifice of fun. I'm sure, though, that to adults it was as grotty then as it is now to me. It's amazing how perceptions change over time. :cool:

I particularly liked the fun house with its carpet-lined revolving tube and the vertical slide ("shoes off!"), as well as the aforementioned Traum Boot. Happy memories indeed.
Click to expand...


Ah yes, those friction carpet burns, what fun!!:p
 
Nice photos -but it makes it look a lot more depressing than i remember it-but i havent been there for years.
I went to Barry for a friends birthday do when we were kids-unfortunately the birthday boy had had a load of candi-floss and coke and decided to puke it all up on the Spanish waltzer-the centrifugal force making it spray all over the rest of us and the bloke in charge of the ride wouldnt stop the thing till the bitter end.

I also worked as a waiter at Barry Butlins for a season years ago-it was a pretty shit job and doling out the "food" was embarassing,the menus would make it sound all nice but it was just mass cooked ready plated crap that arrived in mobile ovens.
Quite often the waiters would drop the food on the kitchen floor cos they it was baking hot and then have to scrape it back up off the floor,dust and all,because they only had a limited number of meals:eek:
The highlight of the day was going to the local con club because they did cheap strong swiss lager.
 
I went there a few times as a kid and took my family there the begining of the summer. (I got sunburnt quite badly)
It made for a nice day out.

barry2.jpg



barry3.jpg
 
ah, i still go there quite a lot, as my gran lives in Cardiff - my dad likes to take us on walks in the nice healthy sleet over the Christmas holidays to work off all the turkey
 
I like pic 2 with some contrast/rgb changes you can make it quite outstanding.

JohnsPainting002.jpg

changed contrast


JohnsPainting001.jpg

changed RGB
 
editor said:
barry-island-07.jpg


I used to go to Barry a lot when I was kid - I can even remember playing in the rows of sorry rusting steam locomotives in Dai Woodham's yard!

I'm made a start with a load of photos taken a few weeks ago, but I'll see if I can dig up some archive stuff too.

Anyone else used to holiday on Barry?

http://www.urban75.org/photos/wales/barry-island.html
Click to expand...

Our school (Dick Sheppard on Tulse Hill) took two years worth of kids to Barry Butlin's back in 1985ish for a week. The poor, poor residents of Barry :)
It remains one of the highlights of my time at school though.
 
Went there once on a school trip. We had a brilliant time in the morning at Barry Island, then had to spend the afternoon at St Fagan's, complete with bloody worksheets.:(
 
From my page:

A lesser known fact about Barry Island is that it was the favoured hoiday haunt of the serial killer Fred West in the 1950s.

After he committed suicide in prison in 1995, he left instructions to be buried at the family plot at St Bartholomew's, Much Marcle. The villagers weren't much keen on the idea so he ended up being cremated, leaving West's unfortunate children were left with an urn full of his ashes - which they promptly despatched to the murky brown waters off Barry Island.
Read more
Click to expand...
:eek:.
 
I went when I was ten and saw a robin redbreast :)
Much better than being in school.
 
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