Volume Two - The Era of Optimism, Investment & Development - Developments at the turn of the 20th century . . .

The Cardiff Times [019] report of the same day stated:- "Engineering Men Discharged.- About 26 of the company's men employed at the engineering works on the south side of Penarth Dock were discharged at 5 o'clock on Tuesday evening until further notice. No men are allowed to stand about on the docks unless they give a satisfactory account of their business. Our reported was twice ordered off the docks this morning."

	Steamships, commonly used water as ballast which could be pumped out into the dock to adjust the trim of the ship during loading of coal. Sailing ships, on the other hand, had to dispose of their solid ballast of stone, iron or clinker before loading could commence which of course caused delay and associated cost.
	Penarth was almost exclusively a coal exporting port, it followed then that ships arriving at the port had, in the main, already discharged their cargo at other ports en-route and were “light” or in ballast.

Ballast was used as infill for construction of roads and railways, but was also sold to local builders by enquiry at the Ballast Office at the docks. Many houses and civic buildings in Penarth and the surrounding area were built utilising ballast as infill, or larger stone and pebble was used between corner brick or stone masonry giving them that distinctive Penarth look.

Judith, my sister-in-law, lives in a house which is made in this fashion; even houses in my village at Dinas Powys, some miles inland, were built from Granite ballast. Vessels often sailed “in ballast”, the ballast in this case being coal which was a commodity which could be sold anywhere in the World and discharged when a more lucrative cargo was available for shipment.