Volume Two - The Era of Optimism, Investment & Development - The gridiron and slipway of the Penarth Shipbuilding & Ship Repairing Co. . . .

The Taff Vale Railway Company recently invited tenders from the different parts of the country for constructing an extra large hopper barge in connection with the dredging of the Penarth Roads. The Penarth Shipbuilding and Ship-repairing Company (Limited) submitted the lowest tender for this vessel, and have consequently been successful in obtaining the order. This hopper will be fitted with all modern improvements, with special gear for opening the doors whilst at sea. It is no new experience for vessels to be built at Penarth, but we believe it is now about twelve years since the Penarth Slipway Company last undertook work of this kind. Under the energetic management of the past couple of years the Penarth company have done much to re-establish their position in the ship-repairing world, and when the new pontoon for which Parliamentary powers have now been obtained is built, doubtless the company will again hold a position of more than ordinary importance.' - Evening Express [135] 14th August 1908.

The signage 'Slipway & Gridiron - Penarth Ship Repairers' is visible in this enlarged and colourised section of a postcard dating from c.1907. [001]

The following article is taken from an 1886 edition of 'The Design and Construction of Harbours - A Treatise on Maritime Engineering' by Thomas Stevenson, P.R.S.E., F.G.S. a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and author of 'Lighthouse Construction and Illumination'. [572] He references the Patent Slipway at Penarth in terms of cost and safety.