WITH Covid restrictions eased across Wales, Victorian Barry walks are set to return.

Barry is rich in history – including during the Victorian era – with the Victorian Barry Experience offering free guided tours of the town, which had been put on hold during the Covid pandemic.

Victorian Barry was brought to life once again by Cllr Nic Hodges in his latest talk on Barry’s origins and the lifestyles of Barry’s population. 

In 1897 there were at least 53 butchers in the town, some serving the local population, but many existing to feed sailors and stock ships as they visited Barry Docks. 

Dressed as one of those Victorian butchers, Cllr Hodges told tales of scandal and of charity to an audience at the Craft Republic in Barry’s historic Goodsheds. 

He explained how Barry Urban District Council’s Health Committee rejected a proposal to lower food hygiene standards in the town, with butchers from Thompson Street and Main Street complaining that standards were too high compared with those in nearby Cardiff. 

Meanwhile, Barry’s food producers were instrumental in keeping the young town alive when the 1898 six-month coal strike affected the docks, leading to poor wages and unemployment. Charitable donations to the food banks of the era saved lives from hunger and malnutrition. 

Cllr Nic Hodges, whose Victorian Barry walks will begin again shortly now that Covid restrictions have been lifted, said it was important that people in Barry know the town’s history. 

Cllr Hodges said: “Industrial Barry grew rapidly at the end of the Victorian era, and in many ways the present town is a reflection of that. 

“Barry needs a museum and heritage centre to tell the stories of those first residents and bring them to life. 

“We also need a planning policy which retains the buildings of those early days which housed some of the town’s most important institutions, so that we don’t lose any more of our history and heritage. 

“In the meantime, myself and my wife, Cllr Shirley Hodges, will continue to promote the Victorian Barry Experience, telling Barry’s history in a fun and accessible manner.”