Barry in Glamorgan was no more than a tiny fishing village before the 1880s. It was its new role as a coal port that put it on the map. A causeway was built across to the unsuspecting Barry Island to create the docks and by 1913, the port was exporting more coal to the world than neighbouring Cardiff.
On this tea towel we show the statue of David Davies, who was a leading figure in the founding of the Port of Barry in 1889. He is not depicted astride a horse, as is so often the case with statues of the great and the good, but as a man of vision standing before the Dock Offices, absorbed in his plans for the town... He towers above a passing steam locomotive, a symbol of the new age of the railway and Barry's vital role in industry and connecting South Wales to the rest of the world.
