Barry : a drinking fountain

During a recent thirst-inducing walk along the coastal path from Rhoose to Barry, I was delighted to notice an old drinking fountain when we finally reached Barry’s Cold Knap Park. Unfortunately, the fountain no longer works so we were ‘forced’ to visit a cafe across the road from the park, where they also sold nice cakes – a real hardship! But I have a bit of a thing about old drinking fountains (see my post on Penarth’s drinking fountains here and some in Cardiff here, so I’ve been trying to find out more about this one.

It seems the lack of drinking water has long troubled visitors to this area: in the Barry Dock News of 14 September 1906 an article reported the minutes of the latest Council meeting, at which the issue of a water supply for Romilly Park had been raised – that park is just across the road from Cold Knap Park, which did not exist at the time (that same newspaper contained an article reporting that the trustees of the Romilly Estate had decided to sell the land along the foreshore between Barry and Porthkerry where Cold Knap Park is now located).

And, in a letter to the Barry Dock News published on 26 August 1910, ‘Holiday-seeker’ raised the scandal of ‘pleasure-seekers’ picnicking at Cold Knap having to pay twopence to a local farmer for a kettleful of water to prepare tea – outrageous!

According to a Coflein report I managed to locate (Coflein is the online database for the National Monuments Record of Wales), the main construction phases of Cold Knap Park can be dated to the 1920s, and the Knap

Lido, which was located within the park and was one of the largest open-air swimming pools in Britain in its heyday, was opened on 1 May 1926. (The Lido closed in 1996, its buildings were demolished and the pool filled in during 2004.) So, I assume the drinking fountain also dates from the mid 1920s.

This date ties in well with an unofficial comment about the fountain that I found on the Friends of the Knap Gardens Facebook page. 

The post, dated 31 August 2016, contained comments about the recent sprucing up and painting of the old drinking fountain, and local resident Joanne Creek commented that she believed the drinking fountain had been installed in 1926 and had been cast by Goulds foundries of Barry – the firm of W. H. Gould, Iron and Brass Founder, was based nearby in Barry Dock. 

Joanne had also been lobbying the local council to have the water supply reinstated but, sadly, had not been successful.

The Coflein report confirms that the drinking fountain is, indeed, made of fluted cast iron, with two bowls on one side, and I have since discovered that the bottom bowl was intended for use by dogs needing a drink – brilliant idea! 

The structures within Cold Knap Park are Grade-II listed so I hope this means the drinking fountain will be protected for future generations to admire, if not to use. I’m sure the local Friends group will be keeping a watchful eye on it.

Barry : St Baruc’s Chapel

Though very little now remains of the structure that once was St Baruc’s Chapel on Barry Island, it is an important part of Barry’s history.

For a start, it’s likely that the place name Barry is derived from the name Baruc, the Celtic saint who was apparently buried at the chapel site c. 700AD. The very good signboard at the site explains:

St Baruc … was a student of St Cadoc who founded the monastery at Llancarfan, about 7 miles away.
During the Middle Ages a pilgrimage to Baruc’s burial place was considered to be very important. It was claimed that four visits to Barry Island were equal to a visit to Rome.

There is still a church dedicated to St Baruc on Barry Island – a short distance away in Phyllis Street – but it’s a sad-looking modern-blockish monstrosity compared to the old chapel. So, it was good to read that a service is still held amongst the ancient ruins, once a year on St Baruc’s Feast Day, 27 September.

According to archaeologists, there have been a series of constructions on the chapel site. The earliest was probably a simple wattle structure that would originally have been built over St Baruc’s grave. Then a single-roomed chapel was built on top of the adjacent burial ground. In Norman times this was augmented by another building, consisting of a nave and chancel, and, later still, two-room accommodation for the resident priest was built adjoining the chapel. The buildings were probably in use until around the 16th century, before falling into ruins and being covered, over time, by wind-blown sand, as the signboard also explains:

When John Storrie, archaeologist and curator of Cardiff Museum, excavated the site in 1894-5, he uncovered the remains of the chapel, buried under mounds of sand that had blown on to the headland. Some of the stones used in the chapel were identified as Roman in origin. Storrie found evidence of wall paintings inside the chapel, a fireplace in the priest’s house and fragments of a stone coffin which may well have once contained the remains of Baruc himself.
John Storrie’s dig also discovered a vast cemetery along Friars Road where many thousands of burials have taken place … The extent of the burial ground suggests that this site was very important in the Middle Ages.

There was once also a holy well, St Baruc’s Well, very near to the chapel. Pilgrims who believed in the healing properties of its water would tie rags in the surrounding trees and drop offerings into the well, in the hope of miraculous cures. Sadly, the well was filled in and covered over with houses in a 1960s development.

If you’re interested in learning more about the site of St Baruc’s Chapel, here’s a contemporary report on John Storrie’s excavations from local newspaper, the Barry Dock News, 4 October 1895:

THE ANTIQUITY OF BARRY ISLAND.
FURTHER IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES OF HISTORIC REMAINS.
A representative of the Barry Dock News has been able, during the past week, to glean valuable additional particulars from different reliable sources as to the success which has attended the work which is being carried on, under the superintendence and personal direction of the celebrated archaeologist, Mr John Storrie, of Cardiff, with regard to the excavation of rare historic remains on Barry Island.
We have already announced that human remains have repeatedly been unearthed on the "Island of St Baruch" during the past two or three months, including complete skeletons of somewhat exceptional proportions.
In addition to this a fine specimen of an old church, well preserved, has likewise been discovered, and the building in connection with this work, representing periods of antiquity dating back at least 1,250 years – at which time Baruch, a hermit of noble birth, from whose name the island takes its designation, flourished – is well known to historians to have existed towards the eastern end of the island, not far from the site at present occupied by Barry Dock.
A gang of men have been placed at Mr Storrie's disposal with a view of rendering the discoveries as complete as possible and of preserving to posterity the reliable history of this famous island. The remains of the chapel have been carefully preserved with due regard to their original position and function, and the whole of the site, together with the place of burial of a large number of bodies, has been enclosed by means of a neat iron railing.
Mr Storrie has likewise turned his attention to other portions of the island, and amongst the historic discoveries which have been made is a most interesting relic of a cyst tomb, consisting of rows of stone placed on edge, covered with rough slabs, within which were the remains of a female occupying that sitting posture peculiar to the Cistercian mode of burial. This cysted tomb was unearthed amongst the excavations which have been made in view of the erection of the harbour pier, and Mr Storrie, in order to carefully preserve this interesting relic, has had it removed and re-erected within the enclosure containing the church remains.
On a spot a little to the north-west of the church has also been discovered a complete tumulus, and an old British kitchen extending at length about forty feet and in the kitchen were found some excellent specimens of Roman and British pottery and other valuable remains, in addition to the skeleton of a shark which possibly once supplied; an important item in the cuisine of this interesting establishment. Close by was also found an old guests' house in a remarkably good state of preservation. This building, it is believed, must have served as an hotel or public house at a very early period in Roman history.

This reconstruction drawing appears on a signboard at the site

All the portable relics have been carefully removed for preservation, and the structural remains have been re-covered with sand, but will probably be again cleared at no distant date when arrangements have been completed for their permanent preservation. At a point in the direction of the new Marine Hotel – where a tunnel is being formed to connect the Barry Railway system with the pier at the dock-head – Mr Storrie has discovered remains of the old monastery, but it is much to be regretted that most of the masonry had been previously removed, and the stone used for metalling the new roads which are being made on the island.
There are still visible, however, near the old farmhouse, pieces of old walling, concrete flooring passages, and what is left of the old monastic well, which, it is understood, was deepened about 25 feet some few years ago, the water at the original level having been dried up owing to the excavations for Barry Dock. When the well was deepened a collection of old coins and other relics were found, but comparatively little attention was paid thereto at the time, and these votive offerings have by this time, therefore, been irrecoverably lost. The earth foundations of the walls of the old monastery, together with the stone-laid passage thereto, are still visible, and the relics of pottery which have been found include mediaeval specimens of about the time of Henry VIII.
At a point direct south of the church, about 260 yards distant from the sacred edifice, is St. Baruch's Well. It is probable that the whole of the remains, which have been arranged with such scholarly taste and judgment by Mr Storrie, will be so preserved by the noble owner of Barry Island, Lord Windsor, that they will afford permanent objects of interest to visitors to the place for centuries to come. At present the island is being visited by hundreds daily, and it is not unreasonable to state that the discoveries which have been made during the past month or two have attracted at least 2,000 persons to Barry Island every Sunday during the fine weather.
It may be interesting to add that there are indications which point to the probability that the historic remains which have already been unearthed represent but a small portion of the antiquated associations which have made this venerable spot so noted throughout the past ages, and Mr Storrie, we understand, is convinced that there still remains to be discovered, somewhere towards the eastern end of the island, an old Roman villa of exceptional interest. As an indication of the degree of pious and devoted regard with which Barry Island has been observed in the past, it may be stated, in addition, that Divine service has been held on the site of the old chapel of St. Baruch at regular intervals up to a few years ago. We are pleased to understand that it is intended to publicly exhibit in the district at the first convenient opportunity the various interesting relics which have been found.

Barry: the Fry’s sign

What a treat this was to see!

I was slipping and sliding down the rain-wet pavement in one of Barry’s many steep streets, Canon Street, when I looked up and spotted this fabulous old advertising sign on the side of one of the houses, on the corner with Romilly Road.

The house didn’t look to have been a shop and it’s not exactly a prominent street, so I don’t know why this particular site was chosen to advertise the products of J.S. Fry and Sons, chocolate-makers extraordinaire. I’m sure every chocolate aficionado knows their name: Joseph Fry and John Vaughan began the chocolate dynasty, when they purchased the chocolate business of Walter Churchman, in Bristol, way back in 1761. The company passed through various family hands and name changes, becoming J. S. Fry & Sons, the biggest commercial producers of chocolate in Britain, in 1822.

Dentists have a lot to thank them for, as they produced the world’s first mass-produced chocolate bar in 1847 and, in 1873, Britain’s first chocolate Easter egg. Fry’s merged with Cadbury in 1919 so their famous name has almost disappeared, though Cadbury (now part of the Kraft empire) still produce at least one Fry’s-branded product, Fry’s Chocolate Cream.

As the trademark for Fry's Pure Concentrated Soluble Cocoa was first registered in 1885, I imagine the Barry sign dates from some time in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Certainly, in the newspapers of those years there are many advertisements for the product, at that time designated a food and endorsed by the medical profession. The examples above are from, left, the Chepstow Argus of 18 September 1899 and, right, the Weekly Mail, 10 February 1906.

Now, all this talk of chocolate has made me peckish …

Barry : Roman remains

It’s only taken me 3½ years of living in Wales to discover that the nearby town of Barry has Roman remains – how did I miss that? Okay, they’re not particularly spectacular remains – though the sea views are pretty spectacular – and they’ve been hemmed in on three sides by modern housing, but any construction that endures for around 1700 years is amazing in my book, and that’s certainly a lot longer than the modern buildings around it will last.

When the Romans invaded Britain in AD43, south-east Wales was the land of the Silures, a fierce warrior tribe that managed to resist Roman domination until around AD75. The Vale of Glamorgan, on the edge of which sits the town of Barry, was rich agricultural land so it’s no surprise the area attracted the Romans. A signboard at the Barry site explains the local context:

The Vale of Glamorgan seems to have been a moderately prosperous area. The route of one of the major Roman roads, between the forts at Cardiff and Loughor, is still preserved in the line of the modern A48 running through Cowbridge, which seems to have been a large village or small town replacing some sort of military installation in the early second century. The Vale itself seems to have been mainly agricultural and it is quite likely that many of the present field systems go back to Roman times. A large number of farmsteads, all Romanised to a greater or lesser degree, are known in the Barry area. In addition villas are known at Llandough, Llantwit Major and Ely.

Lacking any historical records about the Barry building, archaeologists have estimated, from coins found at the site, that it probably dates from the late third or early fourth century, and it also seems likely that the building’s construction was never finished. These details are from another of the signboards:

When it was excavated it was found that some of the walls had collapsed directly over the builders’ levels, suggesting that building work had been abandoned before it was completed.
No expense seems to have been spared on materials, as it had walls in the local Lias limestone and a roof of ceramic tiles, rather than the sandstone slates which were commonly used in the Vale. The sides of the main doorways were made with alternating courses of limestone and tile and the thresholds seem also to have been of tile. In addition chips of fine white limestone, possibly from the Bath area, were found during excavation, suggesting that the building may have been embellished with carved stone.

Although only the lower parts of the walls and their foundations survive, the plan of the building is clear. It has 21 rooms (if you count the two corridors), all grouped around a large central courtyard, and there seem to have been two entrances, one through room O (which currently remains only as a cellar – there would have been a room above it), the other through room G (see plan below – apologies for the blurry nature of this: the signboards at the site are not in good repair).

The reconstruction drawing (also taken from a signboard) is, of course, very speculative, partly because construction was not complete and also because so little of what was finished has survived. As there is no evidence of the under-floor heating systems often found in domestic Roman buildings of this size, it is unlikely to have been a villa. Rather, its close proximity to the sea and to Barry’s harbour probably mean the building would have had some naval or trading function. The Cardiff Museum website speculates that ‘it might have been a mansio or an inn for government officials, but it could have been part of a more intricate system of defence, possibly involving other fortifications at Neath and Loughor’.    

If you’re in the area, this site is definitely worth a visit, and you can then speculate for yourself as to its original purpose … and enjoy the magnificent views over the Bristol Channel!