Volume Four - An Era of Change, Uncertainty, Depression & War - Penarth Dock closure in 1936 . . .

The Penarth Times [101] reported the event:- 'True to their traditions, the dockers loaded 2,249 tons of coal in fourteen and a half hours of actual loading and at 12.25 a.m. on Saturday, like a ghost ship slipping her moorings the 'Amiens' silently passed through the gates for the open sea, while the chill stillness of the dreary morning was broken only by the raucous cry of the gulls and the heavy sighs of those who had loaded probably their last vessel. Only the drab grey outline of the Greek steamer ' Antonis' remained. She had been abandoned beneath a coal tip and was likely to remain there for some time to come. The men who for years had worked on the dock packed up their tools and possessions and headed home for the last time. The docks had closed and there was very little prospect of them opening again.'

In the months and years to follow, work was undertaken by the GWR to remove any unnecessary infrastructure at the dock. It would, however, remain open for laying-up and ship-repairs upon the pontoon.

A letter of 1938, issued from the GWR office at Barry Dock, specifies the need for reduction in expenditure at all the South Wales ports and specifically mentions that at Penarth, the remaining temporary gang will continue to remove permanent ways (railway lines) to suit the needs of the industrial traders now occupying premises there. After they have completed this work they are to disbanded; presumably laid-off and unemployed.

I felt that part of the explanation written by Islwyn Evans within the 'Cardiff Blue Book' [384] published in the 1950's relating of the decline of the coal industry would be a useful reference for some:-

'Production in the coalfield reached its peak point in 1913, the eve of the first world war. In that year the vast total of 56,800,000 tons was produced, and the overseas shipments totaled 34,900,000 tons. The severity of the slump in fortune experienced by the coalfield and the South Wales ports is to be seen in the fact that at the end of the second world war production was down to 20,000,000 tons (a figure which can only compare with the 1880's, the early phase of the development of the coalfield), and apart from coal for bunkering there was little overseas shipment.