2012 – Issue 2 of 4

This will be followed by a weekend of activities sited around the Barry Heritage Railway
station and Barry Island Station.
Local historian and head teacher Dr Jonathan Hicks said, “We will also be staging a living
history event at the Barry Heritage Railway sites on the weekend of 16 and 17 June
2012, which will see scores of Allied military re-enactors setting up an authentic WW2
American camp and staging displays. Barry Island Station will be transformed into a 1940s
station, complete with wartime police and the Home Guard, to portray the Barry Home
Front. A wartime housewife will teach people how to ‘make do and mend’, a skill so
essential during wartime. Other educational living history displays will be housed at the
station, along with an exhibition on the area during the Second World War”.
“There will be steam train rides from the Waterfront Halt to Barry Island and regular
vintage bus service between the two sites as well, supplied by the Cardiff Transport
Preservation Group who will also have their depot open to the public (Sunday Only).
Barry Docks was a major supply port in the build-up to D-Day and we want to recreate
the atmosphere of these days as closely as we can. There will be 1940s-style live
entertainment and a live radio broadcast. The children from ten local primary schools in
Barry and Penarth are to play the role of wartime evacuees. Dressed in 40s costumes,
they will board a steam train from Barry Waterfront and be ‘evacuated’ to Barry Island
Station where they will be given refreshments and view the various events due to take
place on Barry Island Station before being transported back to their parents.”
WW2 period vehicle owners who would like to take part are welcome to contact Event
Co-ordinator Ade Pitman on 07930874161
You can also watch this exciting project develop at the Barry at War website at:
www.barryatwar.info or at the group’s Facebook page.
Western Welsh gas producer bus No. 566 operated at Barry during WW2.
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