Penarth Dock, South Wales - the heritage and legacy

Index to Volume Seven - The People - Dock Family Trees - Companies associated with Penarth Dock construction and machinery. . .

George Rutter [xxxx-xxxx]
	Left - A studio portrait of Mr. George Rutter, photographed by Reed of London in c.1900. [Glamorgan Archives Document Reference : DX349/4] [599] In August 2026, Jane Mathias contacted me regarding her great great great grandfather George Rutter whom was the contractor for the construction of the west end wall of Penarth Dock - see chapter entitled The Quay Wall at the West End of Dock - 1909. By 1893–94, George Rutter, was a large-scale Barry based contractor, President of the local Master Builders' Association, employing a substantial workforce and capable of taking a £14,000 contract from John Cory. The contemporary evidence also explicitly associates him with Barry's infrastructure. John Cory wasn't simply a wealthy local businessman, he was deeply involved in the development of the Barry Docks and Railway Company, and the Dyffryn report specifically suggests that Cory's connection with Rutter came through this involvement. In September 1893, he successfully tendered for extensive alterations and additions to Dyffryn House, the newly acquired home of industrialist John Cory. The work was not a small local building job. It involved substantial alterations and additions to the mansion of John Cory, one of the most important industrialists associated with the development of Barry Docks.
A 2014 National Trust conservation report [1400] [1401] states that John Cory probably knew George Rutter through Cory's involvement in the promotion of the Barry Docks and Railway Company, which is an important clue as to how Rutter became involved in Barry's infrastructure work. There is even a surviving labour dispute from January 1894. Rutter's men were travelling the roughly ten-mile round trip between Barry and Dyffryn, and some workers demanded payment for the travelling time. Rutter refused, saying that he had not known of such a custom. The dispute was reported in the Western Mail on 17 January 1894. That gives us a rather vivid picture of the business: a substantial contractor employing enough men to undertake a £14,000 country-house project several miles from his Barry base.
1889 - Opening of a Wesleyan Chapel East Barry - Gratifying Inaugural Proceedings - A pretty and commodious chapel has just been erected by Mr T. A. Walker, contractor, on a site at East Barry commanding a fertile prospect of Barry Docks, the Island, and the picturesque surrounding country, and on Sunday morning last the sacred edifice was opened for Divine worship in connection with the English Wesleyan Church, of which the Rev. Oswald Parry is the resident minister. The chapel, which has been erected under the supervision of Mr G. Rutter, is a commodious one, and is built of brick and stone masonry at a cost of about £3,600 or £3,700. It will seat fully 300 persons, and the internal arrangements are most complete. . . . Barry Dock News [140] [361] 4th October 1889.

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