Volume Five - The Age of Decline & Crass Stupidity - Where is the final resting place of the pontoon ? . . .

Postscript : Early in 2017 a lovely gentleman named Gordon Williams kindly contacted me and said that he was involved in work upon the buried pontoon. The date of this work probably sometime between 1970 and 1974. At first, I must admit that I was a little skeptical regarding Gordon's memory of events, that is until, in August 2017, I found a plan which included the dock and indicated that a large section of the pontoon had been surveyed and excavated.

The plan of the Penarth Dock found within the Glamorgan Archives, Cardiff in 2017 indicating approx. one third of the pontoon excavated. My recollection of the position of the pontoon (see previous page) is a little inaccurate since this plan indicates it lying closer to the north quay wall of the dock.

Gordon recalled that he was involved in the partial removal of the pontoon which was cut up for scrap for, or by, Cashmores of Newport. Gordon worked for a company named BCC on Penarth Road which supplied and operated two 6" pumps and other equipment to pump the dock water so that the work could be carried out. Gordon recalls that some dumped cars were revealed as the water level dropped and that the work was necessary as the dock was now a council waste dump and the reaction of the waste upon the steelwork was causing localised ground instability. BCC also hired out a welder named Tommy Hall who worked for some time cutting up the pontoon skeleton.

Thank you so much Gordon for your contribution to the Penarth Dock story and I stand firmly corrected. My revised estimate therefore, is that only about two thirds of the original pontoon actually remains buried ; a chunk of steelwork, say, 250 feet long x 75 feet wide or 77 x 23 metres! Anyone got a spade, had three Weetabix for breakfast and has some spare time on their hands?