# Abandoned Village, South Wales



## cogito (Jul 17, 2008)

This is Boys Village near St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan. I don't know much about, but I know it's been abandoned for a few years now. The Wiki entry on the place is less than useful.

Having recently returned to the area I thought I'd best pay it a visit with my long time pal and fellow explorer duckandcover.

Sign on the roadside:






Village Green, church in the background:





Buildings:





Large dining hall:





Again:





The cover from a Bible:





Toilets in some kind of accomodation block:





Out the back of the diner's kitchen. Possibly chefs residence?





Again:





An old vacuum cleaner:





The village church:





Inside:





On the steps to the alter:





On the floor in the church:





Also on the floor in the church, bit creepy:





Peeling paint:





Swimming Pool, this used to have a roof over it:










Pool filtration equipment:





A workshop:





Gymnasium / Basketball court:





Equipment:





Debris:





In the changing rooms:





Residential living room:





This place...





...overlooks this place:





Youth games room. There was all sorts in here including arcade games and pool tables:


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## sinnerman (Jul 17, 2008)

Thats really trashed compaired to my first visit at the begining of last year, absolutely gutting to to see the dedication plaque has been smashed. 

Boys Village was a holliday camp opened by the social commitee of the Ocean Coal Company to provide a seaside holiday for the sons of their miners financed through donations from the miners pay packets. IT was later taken on by the Boys Clubs organisation which operated youth clubs and sports teams throught the industrialised south wales valleys, The original buildings were opened in the 1930's and there are two later buildings added in the 70's and 80's it finnaly closed in in the early 90's and was used breifly by a church organisation and then an airsoft group but has been abandoned for the past 4 years. Planning permission has been granted on the land for housing developments. but id not be happy living that close to aberthaw powerstation.


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## DJhooker (Jul 17, 2008)

That's a sweet find, love the church! how far is it from civilisation?


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## cogito (Jul 17, 2008)

Sinnerman, I've seen fairly regular reports of the place on other websites. Spaced out over the last few years, you can really see it just get worse and worse over time.

I too doubt anyone would live there if they got round to flattening it and building houses, like you say there is a crapload of 250KV pylons coming out of Aberthaw powerstation straight past the place, not great.

Also I forgot to post any pics of the million and one BBs that litter the site. I assumed that local airsoft enthusiasts had just used it for a while for games, didn't realise it was anything legit though?


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## fire*fly (Jul 17, 2008)

it looks like a nice explore, thanks for the pictures


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## The Pirate (Jul 17, 2008)

That place looks ace...i wish i was close enough to visit.


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## NobodyGirl (Jul 17, 2008)

Im in love with your photographs! Beautiful!


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## Squidmato (Jul 17, 2008)

Nice pics dude 

Could you possibly pm me the location please, id love to have a look. And wierdly I have just driven home from Southerndown past St Athen and Aberthaw power station, looking from the road i thought some places would make great pics but never even thought of there being a place like this.


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## spacepunk (Jul 18, 2008)

Lovely site, good photos.
Looks like a grand day out.


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## oldscrote (Jul 18, 2008)

Just cruisin through but just had to log on to tell ye that they is definately the crispest pics I have seen.S.L.R. or multimegapixl mate?


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## cogito (Jul 18, 2008)

oldscrote said:


> Just cruisin through but just had to log on to tell ye that they is definately the crispest pics I have seen.S.L.R. or multimegapixl mate?



Just me old Nikon D70


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## duckandcover (Jul 18, 2008)

This place was aazing there was so much to explore and so many things, it was like stepping back in time. The noises of the trains passing on there way to the powerstation added an atmosphere to the whole place, i did want to get up into the church tower but the ladders were missing all the way up so decided against that one


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## Dutchess (Jul 19, 2008)

oldscrote said:


> Just cruisin through but just had to log on to tell ye that they is definately the crispest pics I have seen.S.L.R. or multimegapixl mate?



My thoughts exactly!  

D.


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## Random (Jul 19, 2008)

Thats a fantastic find, really amazing.

I wonder if they used to have a kite flying club on the old playing field?


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## Nagev (Jul 19, 2008)

Hi,
I can remember vividly staying at this village. It must have been about 1978 and was used as an activity centre among other things.

I stayed there for a week with my local boy scout group (pontypridd) when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old.
The picture of the pool brought back a lot of memories. Mainly of throwing our scout leader in on his birthday.

Had no idea it was still there. Thought it had been bulldozed.

Great pics by the way.


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## cogito (Jul 19, 2008)

Been a fair few comments on the quality of photos, so thanks guys and gals! 

Unfortunately I didn't have my tripod on this outing as I didn't fancy carrying it while riding there on bike. Flash has helped keep a lot sharp though, I use a lot of off-camera flash.

Speaking of said bike, I recently finished building it after over a year of get parts and faffing around... And I'm taking every oppourtunity to show the damn thing off so here we are.


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## smileysal (Jul 20, 2008)

Excellent pics mate. Love that church, both inside and out.

Spoke to my dad about it a few days ago, and he said he'd stayed there when he was a child. (They went down there for holidays from Ebbw Vale as my Grandad used to work in the collieries down there). Dad said they used to go to the beach, then have to bring rocks back and take them up to the airfield. Don't know what they wanted them for, was around the 1936/1937 years, as the airfield opened in 1938. (he's 83 now, and showed him the pics, brought back some memories for him lol). 

Cheers,

 Sal


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## Foxylady (Jul 20, 2008)

Interesting place. A shame it's so trashed and the plaque smashed like that. Echo the comments about the pics...excellent! Like the bike too! 


smileysal said:


> ...and showed him the pics, brought back some memories for him lol).


I bet that must have been a bit sad for him to see it in the state it's in now, Sal.


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## nursepayne (Jul 28, 2008)

That's so surreal, some really great pics you've got there of it.
Theres something a bit Wicker Man about the little wrecked church.


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## dangerous dave (Jul 29, 2008)

in the church shot it shows the stone floor well we did a vist last nite and where very very close to the scum who are pulling up the floor 2 cars parked up up by the village sign and about 3 of then and one in the car so if you go down be carefull of them also the gym hall had a still lit fire in it so go very carefull there


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## smileysal (Jul 30, 2008)

Cheers for the update DD, bloody scum ripping the floors up and lighting fires in there. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

Spoke to dad again yesterday, he said the boys village was called Gilston! but that's when he was there, in 1937/38. The following year in 1939 they moved up from Wales to Derbyshire, so he never had the chance to go back. 

He said they didn't have a swimming pool there when he was there, they just went down to the beach and swam in the sea. 

Cheers,

 Sal


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## duckandcover (Aug 1, 2008)

It's good to see that all that work on the bike pick payed off, the old sports hall was realy bizzare all i can assume is that chavs had been in there but a clean patch had been carved out of the outside of the hall and it had been brushed down. They had allso buit some strange ramps on the inside that made no sense.

The church hall was well and truly on its way to distruction about half of the floor had been removed and various bits of stonework had been removed and smashed up.

By far though the one place i do recomend that you stay away from is the portacabin structure that is near the road that runs parralel to the site, there has ben a massive fire in there at some point in the past and the top floor on one side is totaly unstable i mean the floor was creaking underfoot and bowing so i got out of there quick.

However it was a nice visit during my time in wales!!!

Thanks Mike!!


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## randomnut (Aug 1, 2008)

Nice, that looks like a rare and interesting visit! Some very good shots there. It's a shame some people see the need to vandalise places like that, guess it won't be standing for much longer


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## cogito (Aug 4, 2008)

smileysal said:


> Spoke to dad again yesterday, he said the boys village was called Gilston! but that's when he was there, in 1937/38.



Gileston is the nearest actual village to Boys Village, just a few hundred metres down the lanes.


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## fatdeeman (Aug 5, 2008)

God this place gets worse and worse, been there a couple of times now but never got round to taking pictures.

I found out about the place through cardiffrail.

It's a very haunting place, it's like a little world hidden away from sight.


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## duckandcover (Aug 5, 2008)

The noise of the powerplant makes the whole place verry errie, and the fact that there are houses nearby adds a risc element too it!


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## Trudger (Feb 2, 2009)

wow, first vacuum I ever used was one of those in the picture !!! was in better condition tho'


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## Nigelwyn (Feb 2, 2009)

Really good pictures.
I've seen the sign on the road as I've driven past but never thought to go and see what it was.
Thanks for showing us.


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## BigLoada (Feb 3, 2009)

This is wild! I dream of discovering a whole village abandoned. Must have been quite a bizarre feeling being somewhere like that.


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## theterrorwheel (Feb 10, 2009)

on a recent visit this place is now cleared of most of the interesting stuff, and now appears very close to being knocked down so if you want a visit best make it asap.will load some pics if people want them.


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## ww2nut (Feb 10, 2009)

*memories*

i remember skiving off work on the field that looks now to be full of grass, at that time it was cut short and football pitches were laid out , after half hour security came and told us to leave, but at that time the whole place was immaculate.


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## cogito (Feb 14, 2009)

theterrorwheel said:


> on a recent visit this place is now cleared of most of the interesting stuff, and now appears very close to being knocked down so if you want a visit best make it asap.will load some pics if people want them.



Went there today, theres a few buildings already demolished. The rest have been pretty much stripped of debris.

Pics of current site condition to follow.


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## cogito (Feb 14, 2009)

Jan 2009: Visited with Jonas-Smith

The memorial, same angle as last time. Sadly there is graffiti on the back of it now 






Light switches in the Church. The Church has been stripped bare, although thankfully no more of the marble floor slabs had been looted from last time.





Likewise all the debris littering the Gym has been removed:





Self portrait in the Gym. As you can see even the planks that formed the seating have been removed.





The cupboard door in the Gym. The doors to the changing rooms had gone, as had the changing rooms themselves. They'd been demolished.





There were a lot more graffiti tags than last time too.





Although it was good to see that some original stuff had been left in place:





This panel is pretty similar to the one in London Rd Tunnel Shelter. They're both from the 1930s.





There was the odd little corner that looked relatively untouched.





I love the soft natural light that the whole site seems to be blessed with every time I visit.





The Kitchen area. The back end of this building had been demolished. Shame seeing that it had the most old artefacts in it.





This was there last time. No idea if it was chavs or workers.





There was some pretty intense dry-rot in some of the remaining buildings.





And think of this next time you feel sickened by your local venues piss-pots. 





Obligatory corridor shot:





1930 - 2009?





Shame to see it being torn down. And to have a lot of debris removed. Mind you I'd rather it was removed by workers than chavs. There were some pretty old bits and pieces in there.


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## magaz (Mar 11, 2009)

it's a shame to see the place in such a sorry state. I used to go down years ago when it was an airsoft site, it wen under the name "Dragon Valley" 



> They had allso buit some strange ramps on the inside that made no sense.


they may have been the old barricades that we used as cover... I remember tripping over one of them in the middle of a "firefight" and broke part of my knee on a brick 

Another amusing story... the first time I played there, I fell into the pool and gave myself concussion! 

I've got some photo's lying around "somewhere" from when we played there, i'll dig them out


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## night crawler (Mar 11, 2009)

Some briliant photos there but whatis it with the local low life kids that they have to smash up the toilets and leave there crappy marks every where. It's like that at Fairmile in the old laundery and O/T blocks.Idiots.
I feel it is shame such history is going to disapear.


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## cogito (Mar 13, 2009)

Thought it would be interesting to do this today:


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## Urban-Warrior (Mar 17, 2009)

cogito said:


> Thought it would be interesting to do this today:



an awsome comparison dude.. gimme a shout when the rest of your pcis are up.. was a good day to say the least


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## noodles88 (Mar 17, 2009)

Amazing pictures!! Seems such a beautiful yet eerie location...makes me want to head down south to visit it!!!
Great photography


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## chocmint (Jun 7, 2009)

cogito said:


> This is Boys Village near St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan. I don't know much about, but I know it's been abandoned for a few years now. The Wiki entry on the place is less than useful.
> 
> Having recently returned to the area I thought I'd best pay it a visit with my long time pal and fellow explorer duckandcover.
> 
> ...


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## swanseamale47 (Jun 7, 2009)

chocmint said:


> cogito said:
> 
> 
> > This is Boys Village near St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan. I don't know much about, but I know it's been abandoned for a few years now. The Wiki entry on the place is less than useful.
> ...


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## cogito (Jun 8, 2009)

The powerstation own the site.

The lands worth more to them than the buildings.

Buildings keep getting demolished / burned down.

The security guards don't care about people smashing the place.

We think they're slowly doing an on-the-sly insurance jobby so they can clear the site without having to hire demo crews. Especially seeing that the so far burned buildings were the asbestos-clad ones, notoriously pricey to demolish properly under regulations.

Nuff said.


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## Vintage (Jun 8, 2009)

lets hope if they build houses on this place they keep at least the old church and renovate it up.

Great pics.


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## swedish (Jun 8, 2009)

nice shots bro, looks like a real nice UX...shame in a bit of a state tho, but still looks like fun to me


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## littledasypus (Jun 8, 2009)

*Gutted...*

I was near here a couple of weekends ago, wish I'd known to go for an explore.


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## thatlizkid (Jun 25, 2009)

thanks for the photos! they are amazing! i want to go exploring!


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## PontyLad (Jul 28, 2009)

*Directions??*

hey guys i'm new on here and new to the exploring side of things. as this place is quite near where i live could anyone provide some simple direction or what to type into a sat nav?
many thanks
Pontylad


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## krela (Jul 28, 2009)

PontyLad said:


> hey guys i'm new on here and new to the exploring side of things. as this place is quite near where i live could anyone provide some simple direction or what to type into a sat nav?
> many thanks
> Pontylad



I doubt it, you're kinda expected to find your own way around, particularly as someone who is new to this site. We've got no idea who you are and what your intentions may be.


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## PontyLad (Jul 28, 2009)

ok then, so no directions


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## thirtyfootscrew (Jul 29, 2009)

Awesome work there, I think I'm due over that way for work in November - might have to try and make it across to the site.


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## Potter (Aug 2, 2009)

What a great find? What were the arcade machines like?


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