Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - The dock extension of 1883 . . .

For instance, the bulk of the rock has been systematically forwarded per ballast wagons to Grangetown, where large tracts of land intended to be built over, but which have been deeply excavated for brick making purposes, have been most satisfactorily filled up; while embankment works of a very useful description are now being gone on with at Lower Grangetown, where the loosened material is conveyed in the same manner. So the dock will not only be a boom in itself, but it will have greatly benefited the immediate neighbourhood, as having a means of supplying that very essential desideratum, "a good foundation."

The effect is to be seen; while land near the town on the Penarth-road is still hollow and at a low level, or only partly filled up with scavengers rubbish, many acres at Grangetown are now ready for building purposes, with foundations that may certainly be considered to be of a healthy nature, thanks to the progress of Penarth Dock works, and the forethought and consideration of the agents of Lord Windsor, the landowner.

The dock works will presently prove to be a large extension of the existing Penarth Dock. There is now a wall of rock remaining between the two works, there being on the one side a fine sheet of water amply occupied by steamers and sailing vessels of large tonnage, and on the other the extensive excavations, where a hundred men work in the red rock by day, and a hundred by night. The bed of the new dock has been reached at the point nearest the old dock, and four steam navvies are used to remove the masses of material which have been loosened by repeated discharges of dynamite. The detonations of the discharges can be heard a long way off, and little puffs of smoke indicate to the spectator, who looks on at a respectful distance, the spots where blasting operations are being conducted by the busy labourers. A fifth navvy is also in position.

There will be noticed, special pumps for clearing the surplus water, and, for convenience, wells have been also been sunk in the neighbouring surface. The loosened rock in the bed of the excavations is placed in waggons, which are moved from point to point by teams of horses or steam engine, and finally stationed at the foot of one of the main lines of rails which approach at a steep gradient at the far end of the dock.

Here, a wire rope is attached to the wagons, engines at the top of the plane are set to work, full waggons are drawn up and empty ones let down. The wall on the south side of the dock has been formed to a great extent, and on the opposite the rock, which is really the base of a hill, slants downwards, and will be "pitched".