A WAR museum in Barry is celebrating its tenth anniversary at its Barry Island Station home.
Over the last decade, Barry War Museum hosted special open days, school visits and public lectures, welcoming visitors of all ages from all parts of the globe.
The museum educates visitors about Barry’s wartime story featuring an original World War II Anderson shelter, a 1940s kitchen and a World War I trench.
The museum is brought alive with volunteer telling the story of the Home Front as well as the armed forces.
Barry youngsters, sister and brother Emily Archibald, aged 7, and Alex Archibald, aged 4 get into some historical re-enactment at the Barry War Museum. Picture: Andy Green
Glenn Booker, chair of the Barry at War Group, said: “We have been a remarkably successful, resilient and popular museum.
"It is run on a shoestring budget, but surviving thanks to our wonderful band of volunteers and the remarkable support and generosity of our patron, John Buxton.”
Last term, the museum completed a schools visit programme where nine local schools doing an ‘evacuee experience,’ telling the story of how children escaped the Nazi bombing of their homes with war-time re-enactors bringing alive its lessons.
The Museum has a Trip Advisor rating of 5.0 – the highest rating by any local tourist attraction. It also runs a programme of free historical talks on local and military history.
Barry’s only museum is run by a community of volunteers, known as the Barry at War Group. It has not required subsidy from the public funds thanks to the generous patronage of entrepreneur John Buxton.
There were concerns over the Museums future, after new owners Transport for Wales took over its Barry Island station site.
Emily Archibald, aged 7 as ‘Rosie the Riveter’ who represented women munitions workers in World War II. Picture: Andy Green
The Barry at War Group is currently in discussions with the new owners. Barry Island Station contributes to the m story, with an authentic history of evacuees and armed service personnel all using the station.
He added: “We are now in discussions with the new owners of the site, Transport for Wales, and hope we can create a successful partnership that creates an even greater transformation of the Barry War Museum for the next ten years and beyond.
“We must learn from history, recognising the important role that the citizens of Barry played in protecting life and liberty, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice.”
The museum's volunteer group are now planning to build upon their success with plans for relating the wartime story and experiences to today’s issues of the climate crisis.
The volunteer group will also look at the needs of our society to overcome social division, while commemorating the sacrifices made by the armed service during recent conflicts.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here