Volume Four - An Era of Change, Uncertainty, Depression & War - The 1920's, 30's and 40's . . .

September 1922 - Shipping Casualties - From Lloyd's - "Sept. 25 - The steam tug Harmony, at Penarth Dock, was struck by the propeller of the steamer Northborough." Dundee Courier [226] 26th September 1922.

Jan Morris's states in the book "Wales - Epic Views of a Small Country" [256] that: "The Welsh have always been closer to the French than the English have felt themselves to be. In later years the greatest of all foreign markets for South Wales coal was France - in the 1900's one French shipping line had a fleet of thirty ships carrying nothing else but steam coal from Port Talbot to Rouen, and hundreds of other ships took coal to Nantes and Bordeaux in return for French pit-props. Many French firms opened offices in South Wales, and French families became prominent in local affairs; one of the archetypal sounds of Penarth in the 1920's was the peculiar whoop of the steamer St. Andresse, owned by a well-known resident Frenchman, which used to come in on one tide for its cargo of coal for France, and leave on the very next."

July 1925 - 'The following contracts have been placed by the Great Western Railway : - Overhaul of dredger 'Robert Vassal,' steam tug 'Primrose', and dumb hopper barges 'Benign' and 'Redsand' : The Penarth Pontoon Slipway & Ship Repairing Co. Ltd., Penarth Dock.' - Railway News [435] July 1925.

October 1925 - Great Western Railway - New Contracts - "It is officially announced by the Great Western Railway Company that the following contracts have been placed :- Overhaul of steam hopper-barges Foremost VI. and Foremost VII. - The Penarth Pontoon, Slipway, and Shiprepairing Co., Ltd., Penarth Dock." Western Daily Press [022] 20th October 1925.

February 1926 - G.W.R. Contracts - "It is officially announced by the Great Western Railway Company that the following contracts have been placed :- Overhaul of dredger Duchess and tug Swansea. The Penarth Pontoon, Slipway, and Shiprepairing Co., Ltd., Penarth." Western Morning News [207] 25th February 1926.

November 1928 - New Lock Gates - "The Great Western Railway Company have placed with Messrs Vickers Armstrong, Ltd., an order for a pair of steel lock gates for Penarth Dock." Western Daily Press [022] 2nd November 1928.

September 1930 - Gloucester Firm's Contract - "The Great Western Railway, states "Northern Transport," have awarded the contract for a new 20 ton wagon coaling hoist required for their Penarth Dock to Fielding and Platt, Ltd., of Gloucester." Gloucester Citizen [225] 26th September 1930.