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St. Athan Boys' Village

What: Young persons' holiday camp
Where: West Aberthaw, Glamorgan
Built: 1925-1938, extended c. 1970s
Architect: Probably Thomas, Morgan and Partners of Pontypridd
Abandoned: c.1992
Listed: No.
Visited: 2010
Last Known Condition: Derelict and partly demolished, 2010.
Page Updated: February 2011

In the shadow of Aberthaw Cement Works with its squealing conveyors and busy excavators and the stacks and coal piles of the massive Aberthaw 'B' Power Station, the village of West Aberthaw, just west of Barry is not the nicest of places to hang around on a cold grey Monday afternoon.

This grim scene seems worlds away from the landscape of gently undulating fields and farms overlooking the sea where Philanthropist Lord Davies of Llandinam, president of the Ocean Coal Company was inspired to build a holiday camp for the sons of miners from the South Wales Coalfield. Here the boys would be able to engage in sports and leisure activities and learn new skills in an environment far removed from the grimy, polluted mining towns they called home. The Miner’s Welfare Fund District Committee Seaside Camp or Boys' Village as it became known first opened for an experimental two week period in 1925 but additional facilities were needed before it could open on a permanent basis. In 1926 a donation was made for a sanitation block and water supply but the General Strike of that year meant that the site was not officially opened until 1930, with the last buildings being completed in 1938. The site was well equipped, with two dining halls, dormitories, workshops, concert hall, sports hall, swimming pool, putting green, tennis courts, football rugby and cricket pitches and even a chapel and war memorial. In c. 1940 the camp was requisitioned for military use during the Second World War. Returned to civillian use, the Nationalisation of Coal Act, 1946 saw ownership passed to the ‘Boys Clubs Movement’, an organisation that supported working boys from the ages of 14 to 18.

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The Boys' Village continued to be an important part of generations of boys' upbringings until 1991 when rendered obselete by the collapse of British mining and the rise of cheap family holidays abroad, it closed its doors for the last time. After its closure the camp was used for residential Bible courses by various church groups before being used as a battleground for airsoft groups. Since then the village has become derelict and vandalised and much has been demolished. Rumours have sprung up of a troubled past: abuse, murders in the church or fires that killed boys staying there. All are patently untrue: folklore tries to explain what has been forgotten or lost and a derelict children's camp will naturally inspire all sorts of unsavoury and spurious rumours. The simple truth is, by the late '80s the Boys' Village had become unappealing and expensive to maintain.



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