Boys Village, South Wales, Jan 2011
St Athan Boys Village was a village-style holiday camp located in West Aberthaw, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Opened on August 8th 1925 as a summer camp for the sons from families in the South Wales Coalfield, it offered them a place to play and be free, as well as being close to the nearby beach. Over the ages its usage developed (but not necessarily changed) to be used as a camp for youths and apprenticeships etc as well.
The buildings included a dining hall, dormitories, a gym, swimming pool and a church. There was also a full-sized cricket pitch and pavilion. The site also includes a war memorial. There are rumours about Boys Village being haunted or plagued by a troubled past.
The site declined in line with the decline in coal mining in the Welsh valleys and without the money put in by the miners, it no longer had the finances to operate and subsequently closed in the late 1960s.
Sold in 2000 to a new owner, it was stripped of its equipment and left alone. Taken over by graffiti artists and vandals, various buildings were demolished from 2008 due to extensive fire damage, including the Sir Maynard Jenour building, which was built in the 1980s, the recreation building and a few residential and administrative buildings. The swimming pool roof which collapsed many years after the site's closure was also removed. Much of the debris that littered the remaining buildings was been cleared.
In 2010, the owner placed the site on the market. Unprotected by any form of conservation order, the site could be cleared for redevelopment, also in 2010 the Welsh band 'Funeral For A Friend' shot the video to their song "Serpents in Solitude" from their EP Young and Defenceless here.
Thanks for looking!
St Athan Boys Village was a village-style holiday camp located in West Aberthaw, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Opened on August 8th 1925 as a summer camp for the sons from families in the South Wales Coalfield, it offered them a place to play and be free, as well as being close to the nearby beach. Over the ages its usage developed (but not necessarily changed) to be used as a camp for youths and apprenticeships etc as well.
The buildings included a dining hall, dormitories, a gym, swimming pool and a church. There was also a full-sized cricket pitch and pavilion. The site also includes a war memorial. There are rumours about Boys Village being haunted or plagued by a troubled past.
The site declined in line with the decline in coal mining in the Welsh valleys and without the money put in by the miners, it no longer had the finances to operate and subsequently closed in the late 1960s.
Sold in 2000 to a new owner, it was stripped of its equipment and left alone. Taken over by graffiti artists and vandals, various buildings were demolished from 2008 due to extensive fire damage, including the Sir Maynard Jenour building, which was built in the 1980s, the recreation building and a few residential and administrative buildings. The swimming pool roof which collapsed many years after the site's closure was also removed. Much of the debris that littered the remaining buildings was been cleared.
In 2010, the owner placed the site on the market. Unprotected by any form of conservation order, the site could be cleared for redevelopment, also in 2010 the Welsh band 'Funeral For A Friend' shot the video to their song "Serpents in Solitude" from their EP Young and Defenceless here.
Thanks for looking!
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