Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Working the Ely Tidal Harbour . . .

To commence, I though it might be useful to provide this detailed account of the Ely Tidal Harbour dating from its near completion during April 1859:

1859 - "Penarth Harbour Works. - These works are now nearly completed, and will be opened in the course of the next few weeks. Having visited the spot on Monday week, for the third time since this journal was commenced, we are in a position to give a more particular and complete account of the works as they now stand before us.

The Ely, from its formation, is a natural tidal harbour, and it only required mechanical appliances to render it a most accessible place for the shipment of the mineral produce of the county in which it is situated. It will be remembered that the promoters of the measure rested their case on the largely increasing trade of the district, and the inadequacy of the Bute Docks and Glamorgan Canal to afford the necessary accommodation for shipping coal. The evidence was so strong that parliament at once granted the bill. This was in 1856; and in the following year the same company obtained an Act for constructing the dock, the contract for which was recently let.

That we may not necessarily burden our readers with words, and at the same time place our description intelligibly before them, we shall first of all advert to the formation of the harbour itself, and then notice the tipping and ballast staiths.

The embankment at the side where the tips are placed is pitched, so as to give solidity to the part where vessels will lie when taking in coal. As you stretch your eye round the winding river, the pitching gives you an idea of the extent to which the river frontage may be available when the whole of the works are fully developed. North of the entrance to the harbour is a point which has been carried out in the shape of a sugar loaf, the two sides of which are also pitched. Within is a large space that will in time be filled with the ballast taken from the vessels as they come to the harbour. This point, or boundary line, is also pitched on the face washed by the sea, and will, when filled up, be a large plot of ground on which extensive business operations may be carried on at a future day. Simply looking at the flat surface immediately contiguous to the harbour works, we see at once that there is an abundance of space for the wants of merchants who may congregate on this centre of future thriving industry.

But we must examine the tipping staiths. To do so properly, we must imagine ourselves upon an engine that is transporting a train of coal waggons from the Taff Vale Company's line, along the five miles of railway which the Penarth Company have made to join their works with the mineral wealth of the Taff and Rhymney Valleys.