Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - Some newspaper reports from the 1880's

There is a leveling process to commence with, then there is the delving to get the proper depth of excavation, and when all this is accomplished, an outsider - will, I was an outsider myself until this week - would scarcely credit the amount of propping and damming - this I beg you to remember is not profanity - which have to be done, to say nothing of the timber requisitioned for the purpose. Looking below the surface, as I did on Monday, I was able to form some idea as to the amount of brain energy necessary for making a dock which, when it is completed, only presents itself to the eye as a sheet of water, artificially trapped, for the convenience of the mercantile advancement of the country.

Everything I saw bore the hallmark of thoroughness and solidity, and I am confident those are capable of forming a proper estimate are called upon to pronounce their verdict on the work which has been done, they will have nothing but good words to say of the resident engineer, the contractor, and those by whom they have they have surrounded themselves in the accomplishment of this great undertaking. I may mention that the nine hundred and odd men who form the working staff of the contractor have an almost personal friend in Mr Walker, who has provided - as at Portskewett and elsewhere, coffee taverns and mission-rooms, &c., &c., for their spare moments." Cardiff Times [019] 21st October 1882.

• December 1882 - Accident at Penarth Dock - "About 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the 12 inst., a rigger named Gibson, when shipping the main topmast of the ship Arzilla, slipped and fell from the maintop on to the deck, a distance of about 70 feet, and sustained severe injuries, blood flowing from his mouth. He was promptly conveyed to his home in Plassey-street, Penarth, and a medical man sent for." Cardiff Times [019] 16th December 1882.

• December 1882 - Accident - "During the fog on Monday evening, a brakeman named Richard Huckle met with an accident on the dock extension by some wagons coming into a siding which in the thick fog prevented him from seeing. He sustained severe injuries to his legs, and was promptly carried home." Cardiff Times [019] 16th December 1882.

• January 1883 - Penarth Dock in 1882 - "The work at Penarth Dock during the past year has been carried on with great activity, more coal having been shipped than in any previous year since the dock was opened, and exceeded the shipments of 1881 by upwards of 114,000 tons. The shipments for 1882 were as follows : - Coal, 1,961,745 tons 13 cwt. ; coke, 19, 702 tons. ; total, 1,981,447 tons 13 cwt.