Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Even more aspects - 1911 - The Penarth Dock of the Taff Vale Railway - Railway News Article . . .

The position became intolerable and although at a later date  - to be precise, in the year 1866 - the Taff Vale Company did succeed in obtaining independent access to the East Dock, there were still imposed on the Company obligations in respect of every ton of coal shipped there.

At a later date, powers were obtained by a new Company to build a dock at Cogan Pill - the present Penarth Dock -  and the necessary rail approaches. The leasing of this dock by the Taff Vale Company was the beginning of fresh troubles, and many will recall the long drawn out litigation which only ended in the final Court of Appeal - the House of Lords - and secured to the Taff Vale Company the right to ship coal at the Penarth Dock, and to reap the benefit of a lease into which they had entered backed by Parliamentary powers.

The claim made by the Bute interests was that the shipment of coal at Penarth was a breach of the old agreement to ship coal at Cardiff Docks, and a claim was made for the payment of dues and charges on all coal shipped at Penarth. The decision of the Exchequer Chamber, affirmed that this claim was a just one, and had not the judgment been reversed by the House of Lords, the position would have been of the true Gilbertian type. (a reference to the works of W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame, whom produced operettas with ludicrous or paradoxical comedic sketches and songs.)

The history of the Penarth Dock dates back to 1865, and its trade rapidly grew, the first high-water mark in coal shipments being reached in 1888, when the total reached was 3,169,000 tons. Then came a check to the trade of the dock directly attributable to the opening of the dock at Barry, and for several years the trade at Penarth fell to comparatively small dimensions. All that is now past history, and the story of modern Penarth shows that its trade has now increased to nearly 5,000,000 tons, with the new developments now in progress, an even greater future awaits this dock.

Penarth Dock is situated under Penarth Head, within the Port of Cardiff, and is distant by water about 1 mile from the Bute Docks. It was constructed by the Penarth Harbour, Dock and Railway Company, under the provisions of a Special Act of Parliament passed in 1857. It was opened in 1865, and was enlarged in 1884. It is leased for the term of 999 years to the Taff Vale Railway Company, with whose system of railways it is directly connected.