Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - The Shipbreakers of Penarth . . .

The document ends with the note:

N.B.

1 Mess Room, about 80' x 30' Already erected on site.
1 Furniture Shop, about 80' x 30' Already erected on site.

 

I felt that this proposal for ship-breaking at the former iron-ore wharf in the River Ely was interesting since at that date there would have been competition for its use serving the adjacent oil storage and processing plant. The iron ore wharf was used extensively from 1889 to serve the East Moors Iron and Steel Works, but with the growth of the petroleum industry, the wharf began to serve the new Petroleum Storage and Transit works. The first consignment of fuel oil from Philadelphia arrived aboard the s.s. Lux in 1890. Originally opened in 1889 as the Victoria Petroleum Works it changed ownership to Russian Oil Products. Subsequently, it became the Regent Oil Company between the years 1933 and 1962 and finally passed to Esso Petroleum in 1965, finally closing to business in September 1985.

The ship-breaking proposal of 1912 provides a vivid insight into the scale of the proposed company. Later, the same year, a letter was written to a Mr. F. E. Aitken, esquire, of Northwood, Barry by C. W. Kellock & Company who were Brokers for the Sale, Purchase, and Construction of Ships, Auctioneers, Valuers, Chartering Agents, based at the Shipping Saleroom, Water Street, Liverpool, and who had been founded in 1820, regarding 'Steamers for demolition'.