The Park, Barry

Park, Park Crescent, Barry, CF62 6HE

Open all day

The Park is situated on a steep hill, a short walk from Barry railway station and was built in the later-part of the nineteenth century, as many of the town's larger pubs were in order to cater for the trade and expansion of the town brought about by the construction of the docks. Locals claim that the building was once used as a bible college and a book even says the building was originally a church, however the Park does have the appearance of a late-Victorian brick-built pub, albeit a very grand one. Originally there were 5 doors to the pub, each leading to separate and distinct areas such as the lounge, smoke room, public bar etc, some of these doors have been blocked up over the years and the main entrance today is is on the corner and this leads to a large room with a centrally-situated dark wooden bar with a gleaming brass footrail around it.

Six handpumps are on the bar, serving Brains Bitter, Dark, SA, Rev James, a guest beer and a guest cider. There is also a stillage for casks behind the bar with up to four beers being served straight from the barrel. The guest beers change frequently but the Park is an unusual local outlet for beers from Vale of Glamorgan Brewery, situated in nearby Cadoxton. Other breweries that have featured here have included Gower Brewery and the pumpclips of the previous guests beers are displayed on the bar back, either side of the central pub clock.

To the left of the bar is another smaller room, whilst to the right the bar area continues into a corridor which leads to a separate room with another bar. This part of the pub also has some original features such as ornate moulded plasterwork and a large wooden staircase. The staircase leads to a first floor function room with views across Barry. The Park also features a skittle alley.

The Park is decorated throughout with old breweriana, beer bottles, photos of old Barry and rugby memorabilia, the decoration is familiar to anyone who has visited the City Arms in Cardiff recently and it appears that Brains are trying to make the Park the premier alehouse of the Vale of Glamorgan as they have done with their flagship Cardiff pub. The Park features flatscreen televisions throughout and there is a quiz night every Tuesday.

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Now and Then - Ship in Barry

Ship, Barry, Harbour Road (Corner of St Nicholas Road), Barry

There was a ‘Ship’ pub near this site in the 1780s, this was replaced by the Romilly Estate in the 1850’s with a new pub that lasted until the1880’s until the present building, originally called the Ship Hotel opened in the 1890’s.

The 1950’s/60’s black and white photograph shows the pub was owned by Crosswell’s Brewery of Ely, Cardiff. Crosswell’s were taken over by Rhymney Brewery in 1936 and the dray on the left carries the legend ‘Rhymney & Crosswells’, above the dray is the pub sign with the Rhymney Hobby Horse on it. Rhymney Brewery was taken over by Whitbread in 1966.

According to “The Complete Guide to the Vale of Glamorgan’s Pubs 1997” the Ship was then owned by Welsh Brewers. Today the Ship is owned by Greene King and operated as one of their ‘Hungry Horse’ chain of pubs.

The Castle, Barry

Castle, 44 Jewel Street, Barry, CF63 3NQ

The Castle is a large, imposing street-corner pub set in a residential area of Barry. Built in 1898 out of the local Jurassic limestone blocks with cream-coloured sandstone facings around the doors and windows, the Castle also features original etched glass windows with 'Bar', 'Commercial Room', 'Jug & Bottle' as well as 'Tea' and 'Coffee Room' on them.

When built, as the Castle Hotel, the building had 38 bedrooms, though these are unused nowadays. The original entrance to the bar on the corner is blocked up, today the entrance is from the Jewel Street side, via a large wooden black-painted door and an internal porch with the Brains' dragon on the glass, this leads into the former 'Commercial Room' or what today is known as the lounge.  

The lounge features a large white marble fireplace to one side and has ample seating with red-velvet style coverings together with old photographs of Barry and CAMRA Good Beer Guide posters on the walls, the latter celebrating the fact that the Castle has featured in the annual publication for 5 years. There are also plenty of books around the lounge, the Castle is a community pub and customers are able to borrow books from the collection. The lounge bar counter is made of dark wood and although not original, it probably dates back to a refurbishment in the 1960s. The bar back features a collection of drinking mugs hanging from the dark wooden gantry.

The ceiling features ornate plasterwork and cornices and in one corner there is a wooden staircase leading to an upstairs function room.

To the rear of the lounge is a smaller room, used for Sunday lunches that contains a cast-iron cooking range, this was probably the original kitchen of the Castle Hotel. A nearby corridor, ornately decorated with Victorian floor tiles leads to the snooker room and an outside walled courtyard which features a smoking shelter.

To the side of the ornate fireplace in the lounge is a small corridor that leads through the former 'Jug & Bottle' off-sales department to the public bar with its impressive wooden bar back, pool table and stairs down to the skittle alley.

The Castle is owned by Wales' largest cask ale brewery, SA Brain and the beer range is Bitter and SA together with a Brain's seasonal such as IPA. In addition there are three handpumps used for serving guest beers from breweries such as Brakspears, Shepherd Neame and Celt Experience. Cider from Weston's is also available.

Food is available on Sundays between 12-3, although booking is advisable.

The Castle is a former local CAMRA Pub of the Year and also features in the Real Heritage Pubs of Wales book for its relatively unspoilt interior.

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What's Occuring in Barry?

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The West End Club in Barry will be hosting a beer festival this weekend, for those of you not in Abergavenny

Beers available:

Purple Moose, Madog

Heart of Wales, Welsh Black

Tudor, Sugar Loaf

Brycellyn, Buddy Marvellous

Otley, 07

Otley, 08

Otley, Oxymoron

Rhymney, Export

Waen, Festival Gold

Jacobi ( Not sure which one yet)

Swansea, 3 cliffs Gold

Pwlldu, 4X

Rotters, Ground for Divorce

Kingstone, 1503

Monty's Desert Rat

8 Welsh Ciders

Friday Night "Strickly Acoustic"

Saturday Night "Andy Johnson and guests"

and "Desert Divas Belly Dancing troop"

Free entry to Beer Festival

FOR MORE DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT BARRY WEST END CLUB ON 01446 735 739

Saint Nicholas Road, Barry, South Glamorgan CF62 6QY

Traveline Information:

A closed Barry pub

 

 

I was in Barry recently and saw this large pub closed and boarded up. The Admiral overlooks Cadoxton Train station and went up for auction ealier this year but was not sold as it did not make its guide price. The reason I posted the photo is that I have an old photo, from the 1960s of the same pub when it was the Wenvoe Arms Hotel and owned by Rhymney Brewery, who were taken over by Whitbread and the pub later passed to a pub company such as Admiral or Enterprise and closed.
My only visit to the pub was in about 2005 when I had a half of Brains Bitter and was quite surprised at the scale of the place, as I discovered later a lot of Barry pubs were built on an immense scale due to the docks trade. The pub has its own car park as well as a skittle alley, is situated in a residential area and is one of those pubs that had everything going for it apart from the fact it was owned by a pub company.
I do hope this building will reopen as a pub, however even conversion to flats would be preferable to decay and eventual demolition.