Penarth RFC 1880-2018 – Launch of the club’s Permanent Exhibition
The club’s Permanent history Exhibition, which has been launched today before the match kick-off, is celebrating 140-odd years of rugby in town, from the formation of the club in 1880 to the end of the 2018 season. Originally, the 30 panels of the display were part of the anniversary exhibition curated by former club secretary Chris Thau, which opened at the newly- refurbished Pier Pavilion in May 2015, as part of the celebrations associated with the 125th anniversary of the Barbarians club (formed in 1890). The original exhibition suitably named “Penarth and the Barbarians” was on display at the Pier Pavilion, across the road from the place the Barbarians called home, the now-vanished Esplanade Hotel, brought back to life memories of the early Barbarian tours, which commenced in 1901, a period when the Seaside club was one of the strongest in Wales.
“Penarth and the Barbarians” was officially launched at the beginning of May 2015 by the legendary Barbarians President Mikey Steele-Bodger and his Vice President Geoffrey Windsor-Lewis, who attended the anniversary club dinner afterwards. The exhibition has emphasized the impact the Barbarians traditions and culture have had on Welsh and Penarth rugby, the Town and its people; making Good Friday rugby an event that somehow managed to survive the end of the fixture in 1986 and the passage of time. In many ways, the transition of the Barbarians v Penarth fixture to today’s Youth Rugby day, has given the event meaning in the present professional era and helped preserve the Good Friday rugby tradition in Town.
Once the exhibition arte-facts returned to the storage, the work to update the content of the panels commenced at the Beacon Printers workshop in Penarth. Supervised by Thau and designer Alan Robinson the 30 panels have been updated and, in some case, completely revamped to enable their transformation into the current permanent exhibition, which has replaced the old collection of team photographs displayed in the Long Room previously. The newly-printed panels, sponsored by Beacon Printers and club members and their families, have been recently put on show by club members Phil Gooding and Colin Davies.
