Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Random Rants, Notes and Articles No.2 . .

1861 - Penarth - An Inspector of Nuisance Wanted - This populous and thriving place bids fair to become one of the filthiest places in the county. The drainage is in an abominable state, the filth in some places actually flows out into the open streets - a capital feeder to fevers and cholera. If a board of health is wanted anywhere Penarth is the place. Some of the owners of houses care little for the comfort and health of their tenants as long as they can get their rents. Mr. Saddler, the Superintendent of Police, has been for some time acting as inspector of nuisances in this district, but his inspections are " like angels' visits, few and far between," and his appointment hitherto has been a perfect farce, as he lives at Bridgend. It is to be hoped that the sanitary state of this place will be brought under the notice of the Baroness Windsor. -  The Cardiff Times [019] [361] 6th December 1861.

Description of the Gas Works at Grangetown:

The works at Grangetown were opened in 1863, when the population of Cardiff was approximately 33,000. “The new Gasworks are now in working operation and seem to be constructed with an eye to economy, convenience, and all the modern appliances and improvements” reported the Cardiff Times from March 10th, 1865.

The Grangetown gasworks were marked on the 1880 OS maps and town plans, they had two gasholders at this time. The gasworks were being extended in 1869 according to a report in the Cardiff Times from the 4th September 1869.

In 1893 a stage-floor horizontal retort house was built, with 21 regenerative settings of eight D twenty-foot throughs. Benches and ironwork by R & J Dempster Ltd. "The number of retorts did not justify mechanisation". A railway incline led into the coal stores on either side; discharge was also to both sides.