50 years ago

Extracts from the Barry & District

News of September 20, 1964:

A large housing development to the west of Marine Drive and Westward Driver – expected to cost in the region of £1 ½ million – is being held up by the Barry Public Works and Planning Committee.

Will an act of vandalism mean the end of a fine old oak tree which has dominated the landscape near the Tumulus beyond the westward end of Marine Drive?

It is believed that someone set fire to the base of the hollow trunk on Sunday and the Barry Fire Brigade had to be called to put of the flames.

The Barry Concert Season opened in fine style at the Memorial Hall on Saturday last with the Halle Orchestra under the baton of the ever-popular Sir John Barbirolli.

An alderman at a meeting of the Public Library Committee on Thursday raised the matter of extension of the library service in the town in view of the increased bus fares involved in visiting the library.

I t was recommended at a meeting of the Parks and Open Spaces Committee held on Tuesday week, that the hours of restriction on the playing of tennis and bowls in Corporation parks be extended on Sundays following a report by the Park Superintendent that he had received “numerous verbal requests from members of the public desirous of playing bowls after the authorised hours.”

Whether or not the Methodists at the Colcot should go ahead with a full-scale drive to build a new church at the Colcot and in so doing incur a debt of between £2,500 - £3,000 which would have to be paid off in the next few years, is the issue at stake at a special meeting on Monday, when members if St. David’s Methodist Church will discuss their church’s future.

Forty-three flats at St Nicholas Close, St. Nicholas Road, Barry, have won for the Barry building firm, Hawkins and Holmes Ltd and a firm of Cardiff architects, Powell and Alport, a major award in the Good Housing Design competition, the result of which were announced recently.