Photograph of Salem taken in the 1930s

The buildings have been maintained by the members and have been kept in a generally good state of repair, cleanliness and usability. There has been a problem though with water penetration in the front elevation of the church. This needed to be attended to with great urgency. Now that the scaffolding has come down and the front of the church is looking as new, we look forward to the rest of the buildings being modernised and upgraded.

This is part of an overall plan to refurbish and modernise the church buildings. A number of local organisations and groups have had to be turned away because of the unsuitability of the buildings.  The hall is currently used by the Vale Carers Association, Barry Townswomen's Guild, The Chrysanthemum Society and many church organisations. There are no facilities for the disabled, the toilets are inadequate, the kitchen will not meet present health and safety standards, the heating system is old and inefficient, the floors need to be replaced (dry rot is spreading), the schoolroom windows need to be replaced, the lighting is inefficient, an office and storage facilities are required. New plans have been drawn up for this work. The estimated price for the work is £80,000 plus VAT.  Over two years after this original estimate, the cost has risen to a total of £150,000. With loans of £45,000 we have managed to raise £150,000 so that the work can go ahead.  This means that we will have no money left in the bank and the loans to pay back over the next eight years.  We have prior to these works paid out £25,000 for work on the front and side elevations of the church.  The work will start on June 1st 2004 and should take approximately 22 weeks.  The work involved is: laying a concrete floor throughout the schoolrooms and vestry;  constructing a new rear wall so that the boiler room can be demolished to create a new kitchen and serving area; new windows and safety/security grills for the schoolroom; new toilets (including those for the disabled); new heating for the church (over the past 3-5 months only half of the church has been heated because of the central heating problems), schoolrooms and vestry; new office for the minister; eradication of dry-rot etc. etc.

The membership are carrying out various fund raising events to achieve this aim, coffee mornings, jumble sales, sale of work, buy-a-brick, festival of talents, concerts, gift days, 20p collections etc. in able to achieve our aims but this is a great amount of money to an aging membership. Unfortunately because of the state of the buildings with a hole in the schoolroom floor and inadequate kitchen we have had to cut back on any fund-raising concerts and on the youth work that we would have liked to have done.

it has taken longer than originally envisaged but early in 2005 we were able to hold our first services back in the church.  In August 2005 there still some things to be completed by the builders but we are able to use the church and halls.  We look forward to the buildings being used more regularly, an expansion of Youth work  and use by more organisations.

Can you help? Work has been completed on the outside front and side of the church at a cost of over £25,000 and been paid for.  As a small fellowship we raised over £9,000 during 2000, another £9,000 during 2001, over £10,000 in 2002, over £10,000 in 2003 and £6,500 in 2004 (when the buildings were unavailable most of the year), for the Building work, while also maintaining a minister, manse, general church maintenance and running costs.  Any help however great or small will be put to good use for the community hear in Barry. Any contributions can be sent to the Secretary at 5 Well Walk, The Knap, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan CF62 6SU [Cheques made payable to Salem Baptist Church]. If you want any more information please Email  Salem Baptist Barry.