My wife and I did a round trip from Barry in the mid 80's in the Geest ship "GEESBAY" to the Windward Islands. We looked across at Billie Butland's Holiday Camp and were happy to be on the comfortable 12 passenger ship for 23 days rather than ashore. General cargo outbound, fire engines, a race horse on deck , whisky and frozen chicken to fill the needs of the islands. Returning with a full load of bananas which were promptly unloaded with great care into the temperature controlled warehouses. I understand that Geest had an agreement with the wharf personnel that the operation would be free of work stoppages and strikes. Something must have happened as Geest moved the operation across to Bristol thus helping end the life of Barry Docks.
My first trip as an engineer cadet was on a fruitboat (working for cunard cargo). The frosty (refrigeration engineer) on board was called Colin Parry who had his wife with him, anyway we payed off in Italy and flew back to Heathrow then got the train back home to Wales where him and his missus got off in Barry and I got off in Swansea. Colin Parry from Barry seriously 😍.
My hometown was an important place in its heyday. But by the time I was growing up there in the 1960s it was already a declining, shabby little place which had lost its raison d'etre. Since then it has further declined into one of the grottiest places in the whole of the UK. It could still be great, but it's been let down by successive hopeless town councils with no imagination. They even allowed the Cold Knap swimming baths to deteriorate - deliberately! - until they were only fit to be grassed over. Broad Street in Barry and Holton Road in Barry Dock are these days merely a succession of cheap, shoddy outlets. A tragedy, really.
Marvelous thank you. Do you have any more information about the graving dock featured at 11.14. I've been searching for a photo of it for years. My uncles boat was moored there.
Barry town, I loved it when arriving with an Banana ship in the 60th; I think I have been there for about 15 times with the "Brunseck";
My wife and I did a round trip from Barry in the mid 80's in the Geest ship "GEESBAY" to the Windward Islands.
We looked across at Billie Butland's Holiday Camp and were happy to be on the comfortable 12 passenger ship for 23 days rather than ashore. General cargo outbound, fire engines, a race horse on deck , whisky and frozen chicken to fill the needs of the islands. Returning with a full load of bananas which were promptly unloaded with great care into the temperature controlled warehouses. I understand that Geest had an agreement with the wharf personnel that the operation would be free of work stoppages and strikes. Something must have happened as Geest moved the operation across to Bristol thus helping end the life of Barry Docks.
My first trip as an engineer cadet was on a fruitboat (working for cunard cargo). The frosty (refrigeration engineer) on board was called Colin Parry who had his wife with him, anyway we payed off in Italy and flew back to Heathrow then got the train back home to Wales where him and his missus got off in Barry and I got off in Swansea. Colin Parry from Barry seriously 😍.
My hometown was an important place in its heyday. But by the time I was growing up there in the 1960s it was already a declining, shabby little place which had lost its raison d'etre. Since then it has further declined into one of the grottiest places in the whole of the UK. It could still be great, but it's been let down by successive hopeless town councils with no imagination. They even allowed the Cold Knap swimming baths to deteriorate - deliberately! - until they were only fit to be grassed over. Broad Street in Barry and Holton Road in Barry Dock are these days merely a succession of cheap, shoddy outlets. A tragedy, really.
Marvelous thank you. Do you have any more information about the graving dock featured at 11.14. I've been searching for a photo of it for years. My uncles boat was moored there.
And now they are building flats all over it