Volume Four - An Era of Change, Uncertainty, Depression & War - The era of God's wonderful railway - the GWR years . . .

	Importation at Penarth in July 1927. The “Inverawe” discharging her Spanish or North African grown cargo of esparto grass used for papermaking, baskets and cordage. The papermaking facility was at the nearby Ely Paper Mill.

Unemployment struck the Welsh coalfields in the mid 1920’s being further exacerbated in the U.S. by the Wall Street crash of 1929. In 1932, unemployment among Welsh males was 42.8% and Wales was among the world's most depressed countries. Unemployment was at its most extreme in the coal mining industry, the depression also hit steel, tin-plate, slate and transport workers.

	South Wales was hit particularly badly and at the GWR plans were made to close Penarth Dock. The Earl of Plymouth however, intervened to keep the dock open by foregoing royalty payments due to him for a time. The track layout in the preceding plan indicates that the dock was temporarily closed on 6th July 1936; the last ship having sailed two days earlier.
	Another cargo, this time of baled wood pulp is unloaded at the northern quay of the dock, again, destined for papermaking at Ely in c.1923.