6th Barry Sea Scouts St Nicholas Scout Hall, Barry

Image: © Jaggery Taken: 5 Mar 2013

Viewed across Romilly Park Road. The former St Nicholas church has been a sea scout hall since the 1950s. The sea scouts website states that the old St Nicholas Church had been the original parish church, dating from the 13th century. It was rebuilt in 1873-76 just before the building of Barry Docks. With the explosion in the population of Barry between 1884 to 1900, the church was totally inadequate to accommodate the congregation. The completion in 1908 of a new church, All Saints, made St Nicholas redundant. It was used as a Sunday School until the 1930s, but was then disused. The weather, time and vandals took their toll. All the windows were bricked up in the 1940s. The sea scouts skipper Mr Jack Evans asked the Parochial Church Council whether the group could use the old church. After initial misgivings, the council saw the sense in utilising the old church before it became a complete ruin, and that its use by the youth of the parish would be a good alternative. The Parochial Church Council agreed to lease the building at a peppercorn rent of £1 per annum, on condition that the sea scout group repaired it. After the building was deconsecrated, much renovation and conversion work was done before the building was fit for use as a sea scout hall.

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