page_title: Barry, Vale of Glamorgan
section_title: Industrial history
hierarchical_section_title: Barry, Vale of Glamorgan / History / Industrial history
caption_attribution_description: English: The Waterfront at Barry, Vale of Glamorgan. July 2007 Summary The Waterfront at Barry, Vale of Glamorgan. July 2007
context_page_description: Barry is a town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, on the north coast of the Bristol Channel approximately 9 miles south-southwest of Cardiff. Barry is a seaside resort, with attractions including several beaches and the resurrected Barry Island Pleasure Park. According to Office for National Statistics 2016 estimate data, the population of Barry was 54,673.
  Once a small village, Barry has absorbed its larger neighbouring villages of Cadoxton and Barry Island, and now, Sully. It grew significantly from the 1880s with the development of Barry Docks, which in 1913 was the largest coal port in the world. The place was possibly named after Saint Baruc.
context_section_description: By 1871 the population of Barry was over 100, with 21 buildings, the new estate-owning Romilly family being involved in the buildup of the village but it remained a largely agricultural community. It grew when it was developed as a coal port in the 1880s. The coal trade was growing faster than the facilities at Tiger Bay in Cardiff ever could and so a group of colliery owners formed the Barry Railway Company and chose to build the docks at Barry. Work commenced in 1884 and the first dock basin was opened in 1889 to be followed by two other docks and extensive port installations. The Barry Railway brought coal down from the South Wales Valleys to the new docks whose trade grew from one million tons in the first year, to over nine million tons by 1903. The port was crowded with ships and had flourishing ship repair yards, cold stores, flour mills and an ice factory. By 1913, Barry was the largest coal exporting port in the world.
  Behind the docks rose the terraced houses of Barry which, with Cadoxton, soon formed a sizeable town. The railways which had played a major part in the development of the dock helped make Barry Island a popular resort. Barry Memorial Hall on Gladstone Road was inaugurated in November 1932, and obtained its name to honour those locals who lost their lives in World War I.
  During its industrial peak a number of ships sank off the Barry coast.
caption: Barry Waterfront in July 2007
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