Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - Penarth Dock in 1874. . .

The dock is provided with an entrance lock 270 ft. long, and both dock and basin have entrances 60 ft. wide. The depth of water in both dock and basin is 25 ft. at neap tides, and 35 ft. at ordinary spring tides, and the dock is worked as a tidal one, the entrance being thrown open at high tide for the ingress and egress of vessels.

The arrangements for the shipment of coal at the Penarth Docks are on what is termed the " high level " system, the wagons conveying the coal running on elevated railways leading to the " drops, " of which there are twelve, namely, ten in connexion with the dock and two with the basin. The drops are capable of each shipping coals at the rate of 150 tons per hour, and those in the basin are so arranged that they can supply a large steamer at the rate of 300 tons per hour. Besides the drops for shipping coal there are also hydraulic cranes for ballast, &c., while hydraulic power is likewise employed to work the dock gates, &c.