FROM the Archive this week features a photograph of Dock View Road, in Barry.

In 1902 a meeting was held by the Seamen and Firemen's Union in Dock View Road.

Harry Orbell, a well-known national organiser of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers Union addressed a crowd of 100 sailors, firemen and 'street loafers'.

Harry stood on a chair in the middle of Dock View Road near the junction of Coronation Street outside the Barry Dock Hotel.

He asked the crowd not only to join a union but also to attend more to their reading and to give up drinking.

The gathered crowd obstructed pedestrians and traffic on the road and Police Constable Polman asked Harry to 'move along' which he ignored.

Summoned to Barry Police Court to answer charges of obstruction Harry was fined 20 shillings.

Harry Orbell visited Barry on a number of occasions to deliver popular lectures on trade unionism, the life of the poor and how to improve the lives of ordinary working people.

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, email sha@barryanddistrictnews.co.uk