Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Various dock schemes which failed . . .

1836 - The Ely Docks - A dock was proposed near the termination of the TVR's Ely branch line. Isambard Kingdom Brunel felt the Ely was a superior location in comparison to the Taff and after a survey and trial borings had been undertaken he wrote; "In the space between Cogan Pill and Penarth Point by enclosing a portion of the Bay formed by the sweep of the River a spacious Dock may be formed sufficient for all the trade which has been calculated upon for the proposed railway and capable of being extended . . . "

This 14 acre dock consisted of a tidal basin and a main wet dock which would be entered through a pair of lock gates making this a tidal docking system. The entrance was intended to face upstream and a second entrance onto the river could also be utilised at high tide. The main dock was estimated to have capacity to serve 200 vessels. The estimated cost of the project was a mere £60,000. The previous Acts of 1836 and subsequent Acts had made no provision for such a scheme and following a campaign against the TVR by the Marquis of Bute, by mid-1840, Robert Stephenson, advisor to Bute declared the Ely dock was no more.

The book of 1840 entitled “Nautical Observations on the Port and Maritime Vicinity of Cardiff (with Occasional Strictures on the Ninth Report of the Taff Vale Railway Directors, and Some General Remarks on the Commerce of Glamorganshire)” by William Henry Smyth [126] has within its pages the entire story of the attempts of the TVR to develop Cogan Pill. The record sets the scene for battle and commences with the somewhat forthright statement from the chair of the commission set up to investigate some slightly dodgy and underhand dealings of the board of the TVR:- “A printed paper has accidentally come under my notice, which, being in an official shape, and signed by the chairman of a meeting convened by public advertisement, certainly demands a comment, as it not only errs against fact, but also against the taste, and good fellowship common to such records.” Smyth (1788-1865), a former Royal Navy Admiral with 25 years service under his belt had started out as a ship's boy on a West India merchantman. His designs were used for the Bute Dock and he supervised their building. He retired in 1846 and obviously knew a thing or two about sailing ships and the sea, and he wasn’t about to let any comment pass his enquiry that errs against fact!