THIS week the nostalgia section features an idyllic scene of a motor car driving through Porthkerry Park between 1920 and 1930.

On Friday, January 15, 1897 life in Barry changed forever. It was the first time a motor car drove through the town and it attracted a lot of attention.

It was delivering goods from Cardiff to a streamer in Barry Docks. The day after - January 16, 1897 is the date of the first road traffic accident in Barry.

The same motor car set out from Cardiff at 12pm and arrived in Barry 90 minutes later.

The car attempted the steep assent up Porthkerry Road.

It stopped near the Aberthaw Hotel as it couldn’t make it up the hill and applied the brakes.

This failed to act and the car ran backwards knocked over a lamp-post and ploughed up onto the pavement before stopping.

Reporting in the Barry Dock Newspaper on the incident, they referred to the motor car as:

“that horrid thing of the nineteenth century - the traction engine of bygone days”.

The Barry & District News would like to thank Cllr Shirley Hodges for the photograph and information.

If you have an old Barry photograph you would like to see included, with information about what it depicts, send them to Sharon Harris via email sha@barryanddistrictnews.co.uk