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

Having made the arrangements with Lord Bute, they would maintain their obligation, that may be favourable or otherwise, but I believe it will be found advantageous to all parties.

The T.V.R. Company having thus abandoned the conversion of the mouth of the River Ely, other parties took up the question, and had not contented themselves with merely making a tidal harbour, but they stand before you now as the proprietors of a great dock, nobly achieved, and scientifically and admirably carried out.

The noble lady on the left of the chairman (that was Lady Windsor) remembered when her Lord took a deep interest in this undertaking and, Providence having removed him, his noble son, in conformation of his wishes, became the first chairman of this company.

Still he, too, was removed, but there remained a scion of that noble house who they might hope would arrive at mature age, and might see the wishes of the grandfather and the father carried into effect."

Lady Windsor’s husband , Robert Clive, died in August 1854, and the ’scion' referred to was her grandson who had been born in 1857, succeeded his grandfather in 1869, and became 1st Earl of Plymouth (2nd creation) in 1905.

The entrance to the dock was 60 feet wide. There were two tips on the south side of the Basin. The lock leading from the Basin to the dock had two gates ; one at the east and one at the west with a drawbridge linking the southern and northern sides of the dock.

On the sill of the sea gates and the lock gates the depth of water was 35 feet spring tides and 25 feet neap tides, giving a depth of four feet lower than the Bute East Dock and seven feet lower than the Bute West Dock sill. The dock was tidal and at high water ships could sail into and leave the dock without locking.

On the southern side of the dock were nine stone piers. Each one had a single tip except the second pier which had two. The north side of the dock had no coal tips, but had hydraulically operated cranes for the unloading of iron ore and other cargoes.

The twelve coal drops could ship 150 tons of coal an hour. These tips, or drops, were built of timber, and on a "balance principle”.