The Normans were very prominent in South Wales after the Battle of Hastings. For South Wales the most important of the Normans was a knight called Odo on whom William of Normandy relied for the invasion and for support thereafter.
Odo was favoured by William the Conqueror and received a large part of South Wales through to Pembroke after its conquest. The giving of lands included Barry Island that was so-named due to the connection with St Baruc who was buried at Nells Point. Possibly to make himself and his family more acceptable to the locals he adopted the surname de Barry which linked the family to the area. Spin doctors are clearly an ancient and much respected profession.
The de Barrys stayed in the area but had lands all along what we would now call the M4 corridor. Over the course of time marriage integrated them more fully into Welsh society. It should come as no surprise that the de Barrys were married into Welsh royalty. The Fitzgerald dynasty began with Gerald de Barry and his wife Nest ferch Rhys who was the only legitimate daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr and so were distant cousins of the Tudors.
The Normans influenced a great deal in South Wales. Castles were built as were many churches with ‘norman towers’ with the evidence continuing today in Cadoxton and Merthyr Dyfan. Odo’s family were not only the main architects of the Norman invasion of South Wales but were instrumental in retaining it against a general uprising by the Welsh soon after. The Normans almost lost this uprising but the last great battle in the siege of Pembroke won the day for the de Barry family with cunning subterfuge. During long siege Gerald de Windsor of the de Barry family managed to convince the attackers that they had food to last for months even though they were down to their last. With the promise of having to carry on the siege for another 4 months the Welsh attackers withdrew.