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

Harriet, daughter of the fifth Earl of Plymouth, married Hon. Robert Clive, second son of the Earl of Powys, and descendent of Robert Clive of India. Hon. Robert Henry Clive died in 1854, and Lady Harriet had the Barony of Windsor which had been in abeyance since 1833 activated in her favour. She became Baroness Windsor and owner of Penarth Parish. She died in 1869 and her grandson was created 1st Earl of Plymouth (second creation) in 1905.

Crawshay Bailey (1789 - 1872) was an iron master, colliery owner, M.P. from 1852 to 1868, and a great promoter of railways. He left his native Yorkshire when twelve years of age to join his older brother Joseph at Cyfartha to assist at his rich uncle's iron works.

Later the two brothers developed the Nantyglo and Beaufort Works. He saw the opportunities of exporting coal and in 1845 with Sir Josiah John Guest he obtained powers to join the Aberdare Railway with the T.V.R. at Navigation, now called Abercynon. This facilitated the export of coal from the Aberdare Valley. In 1867 he sold the greater part of his estate to the Powell Dyffryn Steam Coal Company for £123,500.

Thomas Powell (1779? - 1863) began in the timber trade, but soon realised the greater profit in coal. In 1829 he sank two pits at Gelligaer proving a vein of coal six feet thick, and in 1842 in the Aberdare Valley he struck a four feet seam. His was the first coal staith on the "Bank” at Cardiff.

For a while he was on partnership with John Nixon but they disagreed over commission on the French trade. The Admiralty preference for Welsh steam coal gave him a lucrative market. He owned sixteen pits and in 1862, when he exported 700,000 tons of coal, he was probably the largest coal exporter in the world.

John Nixon, who came from the North East of England, had seen the smokeless quality and high steaming capacity of South Wales coal used on a boat on the River Thames and came to Cardiff. He went into partnership with Thomas Powell. Nixon chartered, at his own expense, a vessel of 100 tons burden to carry Aberdare coal to Nantes, gratis, to prospective customers willing to experiment with the coal. The results were good, and the French Navy adopted 'Welsh coal. The partnership with Powell ended because they disagreed about commission.