The pleasure park is located opposite the sandy beachfront at Barry and contains a variety of amusements including fairground rides, attractions & food outlets.

With no competition the Switchback was a very popular and crowded attraction with Victorian holidaymakers and day trippers from the South Wales Valleys for fifteen years until a much larger Figure 8 roller coaster, also built by LaMarcus Thompson, opened on the edge of the beach level with the present pleasure park site in the spring of 1912.

The Switchback's trade declined, in competition with the more exciting Figure Eight and it only operated for another two years, finally closing in 1914 just as World War I in Europe started and the number of holiday visitors dropped off dramatically.

When the brothers returned from a period of touring with their mobile fair rides and tried to renew their own Barry Island lease, the following year in 1930, they were stunned to discover that Pat Collins had outbid them on their home territory.

The White Bros moved their operations across the road to a new and much smaller site, which they named 'White's Cosy Corner' and established a restaurant, an amusement arcade and a dodgem cars rink.

Cosy Corner was destroyed by arson in 1999 and the shell demolished, but after several stalled planning applications the site was redeveloped and reopened in 2007 as a family entertainments centre.

Cars, buses and motor cyclists had to be diverted by harassed police to carparks at the Knap, Porthkerry Park, and even as far away as Sully and Rhoose when it was found that it was impossible to cram any more vehicles on the island.

By six o'clock in the evening the homeward trek began with a continuous slow moving line of cars and buses stretching all the way from Barry to the roundabout at Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff.

With a track of just over a mile long and an initial climb and drop of seventy two feet it was the biggest wood built roller coaster ever erected in the UK.

The massive ride only just fitted into the available space and ran almost the full length of the park, although the top entrance (giving access to the island's railway station) had to be moved by several yards.

The structure was partially dismantled, serviced and rebuilt in 1963 but the ride had to be demolished in 1973 after being badly damaged in a severe winter gale and deemed uneconomical to repair.

The Summers family ran the Big Wheel, Dive Bomber, Moon Rocket, Revolving Jets and Tipping Paratrooper rides along with the Mirror Maze, two One Arm Bandit Arcades and several "Prize every time" The Collins brothers went their separate ways during the early 1980s, and Pat took the reins himself.

Due to a later bankruptcy the park then changed hands, and bought by Ken Rogers, the millionaire owner of the Hypervalue Group, a chain of twelve "£1 an item" budget stores in South Wales.

Patrick Collins (Jnr) also leases Porthkerry Forest Cafe and the deck chairs on Barry Island as well as operating a kiosk selling sweets, opposite the former Butlins site and Pleasure Park.

Showman Henry Danter, and his family, continued with their £20m investment plan after purchasing the park, in which they hope to see the fairground attraction and Barry Island transformed into Wales’ top tourist destination within the next five years.