Though David Davies was the "father" of Barry Docks, Archibald Hood, owner of the Glamorgan Colliery at Llwynypia, deserves far greater acclamation than he has ever been afforded for his part in the development and then the running of the Barry Docks and Railways Company.
It was Hood who, with others, first got David Davies interested in the development of a dock at Barry, and then, capitalising on his position as a leading industrialist and MP, Davies piloted the scheme through Parliament and became the Deputy Chairman when the dock was opened.
But this did not last for long as Davies died in 1890, only about a year after the dock and railway was opened in 1889.
Archibald Hood took over from Davies as Deputy Chairman (the Earl of Plymouth was the Chairman) and he guided the concern through its further development.
This included the opening of the No.2 Dock, the Barry Island branch, the Vale of Glamorgan line and the building of the line from Tynycaeau Junction across Walnut Tree Viaduct at Taffs Well, into the Rhymney Valley, and across the new Llanbradach Viaduct into the Brecon & Merthyr line at Duffryn Isaf Junction.
Hood was probably more what we would today call the Chief Executive, the person actually directing the development of the Company, with the General Manager responding to him.
I feel that Archibald Hood should be better commemorated in Barry, and that he deserves to have a statue alongside that of David Davies.
After his death in 1902, Hood's staff and friends at Llwynypia put up a statue to him there. As this in later years fell into an unkempt condition surrounded by brambles, I tried to get the Barry Council to see if it were possible for it to be relocated at Barry Docks. The request co-incided with a plan by Rhondda Cynon Council to restore the statue themselves and so it was retained in that area.
It would be good if a replica of this statue could be obtained (like the one of David Davies that stands outside the former Dock Offices, of which there is a replica at his birthplace Llandinam), and perhaps support could be drummed up with the respective councils for a replica of the Hood statue to be located alongside that of David Davies.
Hood did a massive amount for Barry and better recognition is long overdue.
John Hodge - April 2008
your comments
Philip Slade, Barry
My great grandfather Bertram Arthur Slade was tug boat Captain of the Archibald Hood and died of a fatal heart attack on his vessel in Dec 1944 at Barry Docks.
Bruce Reid, Hamilton, New Zealand
My grandfather, Philip Reid, who was born in Cardiff, served as a boy on the tugboat, Archibald Hood, from January 1914 to April 1914, before volunteering to join the Royal Navy.
Peter Jones, France
There was a tugboat named Archibald Hood at Cardiff. It used to tie up at the Pier Head was used at Cardiff and various ports in the Bristol Channel. In the Gwent village of Devauden near Chepstow, the village hall is called the Hood Memorial Hall. The family lived in Tredean nearby. I joined my first ship in Barry docks it was the Norwegian SS Linhaug. I was 14 years old.
John Hodge argues that proper recognition should be given to this driving force behind Barry Docks
