The Boys’ Village - St Athan
Developed by politician and philanthropist David Davies who was passionate in the fight against tuberculosis and helped develop hospitals across Wales, the Boys’ Village was officially opened on August 8, 1925. It’s main purpose was to help the male children of the coal miners that were working within the South Wales Valleys pits. The village offered the children respite from the polluted and unhealthy atmosphere of the Valleys industrial towns. It was designed to allow these children a place to be children, to play and be free. The site was chosen as it is close to the nearby beach at Gileston.
Originally, the buildings comprised a dining hall, dormitories, a gym, an outdoor swimming pool, workshops and a church. Also located on site was a full-sized cricket pitch, putting green, tennis courts, football and rugby grounds and a pavilion. Located centrally to the site is a war memorial. Adults that spent time here within their youth still hold this site dear to their heart and attend yearly on Remembrance Sunday to pay their respects. The memorial commemorated men from the coalfields who had lost their lives in the two World Wars.
With the start of World War II the camp was requisitioned for military use but soon returned to civilian after the war in 1946.
With the decline in coal mining in the Welsh valleys and pit closures meaning the minors were losing their jobs and the children attending the camp slowly dwindling in 1990, the Boys' Clubs of Wales, the organisation responsible for running the camp, went into administration, forcing the site's closure.
The camp never regained the popularity it had prior and ownership changed hands to a private owner is 2013 where any further development of the camp stopped. Out of the way and abandoned the camp soon became a target for youths where the camp was slowly destroyed with buildings becoming the targets for arsonists such as the former caretakers bungalow and graffiti artists.
What’s left of the camp now is a shell of it’s former self. Look closely and you’ll see the braille on the walls still, the mosaic floor tiles and the old light fittings. These could be the last images that document the space there before the site is bulldozed, the history erased and new housing is built.
