Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - The graving dock and the growth of the coal trade . . .

	The 1880 OS map shows the curvature of the main dock at 2100 feet (640m) long x 370 feet (113m) wide and the locations of the 10 coal tips one being a double to load a ship with two tips simultaneously. Note the right-angular configuration of the railways to tip number 10 at the left of the image, the full coal wagons and empties being on the other line. This configuration may be clearly seen in the OS map published in 1880 above. It appears that the original inclined sections of track to each coal tip have been abandoned by this date; most probably as a result of impact damage to coal trucks since they were fitted with solid buffers. Sprung or hydraulic buffers became a requirement on the TVR only from about 1908 onwards. The 1880 OS map above shows that at the western end of the dock there was a strangely shaped feature. It is the entrance to a graving dock which was never completed. This view is from 1864, being just prior to the dock filling. The entrance was 60 feet (18.3m) wide and 46 feet (14m) tall. Note the sill. However, since it was designed for the shipping foreseen in the 1860's, its usefulness was most probably overshadowed by the need for greater coal-handling facilities to meet ever growing demand.

A good description of the theory of the graving dock may be found in a publication defending their specialty, that of designing floating docks, and clearly outlining the disadvantages of the graving dock, by Clark & Stanfield [020] in 1901:- "The graving dock is, in its simplest sense, nothing more than a hole dug out of the foreshore below high-tide level with its sea end closed by a caisson or gate. A vessel is floated into this excavation and the end closed by a gate, and when the contained water is pumped out of the pound or interior of the excavation empty, the bottom of the vessel can be got at . ."