Penarth Dock, South Wales - the heritage and legacy

about . . .

Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - The River Ely Iron Ore Wharf . . .

c.1889 - The construction of the blast furnaces at East Moors Iron and Steel Works plus my connection with the adjacent G.K.N. Castle Works in the 1970's. - (repeated from Volume Two)

The company enhanced its client base by amalgamating with Keens in 1901 and with Nettlefolds the following year, thus, G.K.N. was born, i.e. Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Limited.

In 1930, a further partial amalgamation resulted in the Guest, Keen & Baldwin Iron & Steel Company.

The Dowlais works at Merthyr Tydfil continued producing mainly steel rails by the Bessemer process and was modernised in 1908 with new blast furnaces. Further investment in a sleeper mill and power station during 1921 followed and again, in 1926, with new coke ovens, steam turbines for blast furnace use and a by-product plant. Then the decade long worldwide economic depression (1929-1939) hit the industry hard, trade declined overnight and the Dowlais at Merthyr Tydfil was closed in 1930.

This overview provides us with the links in the chain between iron and steel production which was necessary in order to sustain the industrial revolution of South Wales ; the coal, needed as the source of energy ; plus the infrastructure of the railway permanent way, the engines and their control systems, all connected to the docks and the maritime trades. These 'systems' were interconnected and interdependent upon one another. So we now concentrate on the rôle of the River Ely Iron Ore Wharf in serving the East Moors Iron and Steelworks at Cardiff.

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information . . .