Barry Island Pleasure Park
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| Location | Barry Island, Wales |
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| Coordinates | 51°23′29″N 3°16′31″W / 51.3914°N 3.2753°WCoordinates: 51°23′29″N 3°16′31″W / 51.3914°N 3.2753°W |
| Owner | Henry Danter |
| Opened | 1897-present |
| Previous names | The New Evesham Pleasure Park (1929–1950) |
| Operating season | Easter to September |
| Rides | |
| Total | 15 attractions |
| Roller coasters | 1 |
| Website | Barry Island Pleasure Park |
Barry Island Pleasure Park is an amusement park situated on the coast at Barry Island in the Vale of Glamorgan, about 10 miles south west of the capital city Cardiff, Wales. The park opened annually at weekends from Easter onwards and daily during the school summer holidays, until the first weekend in September.
Barry Island contains shops, bars and restaurants. The Pleasure Park was once famous for its Scenic Railway which dominated half of the site in the mid-20th century, but was partially destroyed in a gale in 1973 before being dismantled. Many of the scenic railway's beams were used in the building of the Log Flume ride, which was one of the park's most popular attractions.
The Pleasure Park has over thirty attractions and rides. However lack of investment in the park resulted in the majority of these being removed, notably the Viper rollercoaster and the Log Flume. Park entrance is free of charge.
Several Amusement arcades are located around the pleasure park.
Barry Island Pleasure Park is part owned by Ian Rogers, who ran Welsh discount chain Hypervalue before it ran into financial difficulties. In 2006, Hilco UK Ltd who specialise in dealing with failing retail businesses assumed control of the ailing Hypervalue group and commenced disposing of various Hypervalue stores and settling accounts with the many creditors. Mr Rogers now owns part of the reorganised group, renamed Hypa Xtra. The park was operated by showman Vernon Studt between 2010 and 2014 under a lease from the joint owners.
The only access to Barry Island before 1896 had been either by foot across the sands and mud at low tide or by Yellow Funnel Line paddle steamer when the tide was in. As a further incentive for visitors to come to Barry, an extension to the railway line, through a boxed in tunnel on a 250 yard long pier structure, was built from the mainland to a new station next to the main Barry Pierhead. This enabled visitors to board the paddle steamers that plied in the Channel to Bristol, Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare. Once the rail link was completed the visitor numbers to the island exploded and one Bank Holiday weekend, over 150,000 visitors were recorded arriving on the island, and most of those came by train. Trains were arriving every ten minutes and by 5 p.m. were leaving at the same rate. The station opened in time for the August Bank Holiday week in 1896 giving the impetus for the development of further attractions on the island.
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