Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Acts and disputes . . .

1848 - The second Marquis of Bute dies and the management of the Cardiff Docks is handled by the Bute Estate Trustees.

1849 - The TVR are forced to accept the terms of the Bute Trustees, i.e. that should they ship coal from any port other than Cardiff, they would pay the equivalent dues and wharfage costs to the Trustees as if they had shipped from the West Bute Dock. There appears to have been a period of stability for five or so years until the Rhymney Railway Company were given preferential treatment and use of the Bute East Dock; the TVR being excluded from this newly completed dock.

1853 - In 1853 a plan was proposed by John Batchelor (1820–1883) to make a dock by enclosing the entire bay from Penarth Head to the docks at Cardiff. This was considered to be too ambitious since the rivers Taff and Ely would have to be diverted by tunnel to Sully. Batchelor became a Director of the Penarth Co. in 1856.

1855 - Given the vexatious delays in clearing coal exports at Cardiff and the rising tolls imposed by the Bute monopoly it is no wonder that a number of coal shippers collectively revived the original scheme of the tidal harbour in the river Ely, this being only a mile or so distant from the Bute Cardiff operations. A Bill was prepared and presented to Parliament by Her Majesty's Command later in the year. The Bute Trustees strongly opposed the Bill and bitter disputes followed. The promoters of the new Bill, the interested parties, included the Hon. Robert Clive Windsor who held significant mineral rights; then Thomas Powell, Crayshaw Bailey and James Insole who were coal owners, amongst other influential people; some held multiple Directorships and/or were shareholders in the TVR.

1856 - The Ely Tidal Harbour and Railway Act was passed into statute on the 21st July that year much to the annoyance of the Bute empire! The Admiralty had submitted a report under the Preliminary Inquiries Act dated 15th February 1856 which states: "The principle objects contemplated by the above Bill, as far as the Admiralty jurisdiction is concerned, are:-

1. The construction of a line of railway from the Taff Vale Railway at Clan-yr-afon to the north-east bank of the River Ely, a distance of about six miles.
2. The embanking, widening, deepening, and improving of that part of the river Ely, between a point about 1,012 yards below Cogan Pill, and a point 3,168 yards above the said Pill.