Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - A History of Penarth Dock by Roy Thorne . . .

Brunel reported that the site "at the termination of the Ely Branch of the Taff Vale Railway” [1159] [Vol.2, p.75-79] had all the requisites for a good harbour with depth of water, a sheltered position, facility of ingress and egress and anchorage, and that the site at the River Ely was superior to that of the Taff, and expressed the opinion that the River Ely site should have been originally selected. Brunei envisaged that a Basin would communicate directly with the river with the entrance pointing north-west.

At High water the gates to the basin and dock would be opened to allow free entrance and exit for vessels. He also pointed out that the dock could be extended eastwards if trade increased and another entrance made.

The south side of the deck would give about 20 berths and he suggested that if berths were arranged obliquely instead of broadside then 30 berths could be made. If the north side was fitted with berths then the number could be doubled. The basin of two acres in area could, in an emergency, hold 15 vessels averaging 200 tons each, and the dock of 14 acres could contain 100 to 120 vessels, but there was ample space to extend the dock to render it capable of berthing 80 and of containing afloat 150 to 200 vessels.

Brunel estimated that the whole works would cost £60,000. He reported that the entrances would only require scouring and that if two or three feet of water was drawn off during Spring Tides from the dock of 14 acres this could be done. He also said that the accumulation of mud and other deposits in the basin and dock could be cleared and he proposed "to use the method used with success in the Bristol float."

Negotiations had been started after April 1936 between Hon. Robert Henry Clive and the Taff Vale Railway Company whereby the company guaranteed making the Ely Branch and Hon. Robert Clive agreed to sell land for a dock at Penarth because Lord Bute could not satisfy Hon. R. Clive and the coal freighters over the dock charges he proposed to make at the Bute West Dock when completed.

On 5th August 1836 the T.V.R. made an agreement with Hon. Robert Clive, M.P., his wife Lady Harriet and her trustees to undertake to make within five years the Ely Branch (from Radyr to past Cogan Pill on the west bank of the Ely) being bound to pay Robert Henry Clive £56,000 if they did not do so.