Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Sea Breezes Article 1983 - 'Penarth Dock of 35 years ago' . . .

A friend and contributor, Mr. Clive Spencer, once of Penarth and now residing in New Zealand wrote of his experiences as a boy growing up in Penarth before going to sea. He kindly sent me a copy of an article from the magazine 'Sea Breezes' [290] published in December 1983 which describes the activities from around 1948 onwards. It is prefaced as follows:

'Penarth Dock, and Ely Harbour once busy with coal traffic, coastal traders and shiprepairing no longer exists today. These memories of the dock in its heyday are recalled by V. Llewellyn, who spent his pre-seagoing days in the area'

Penarth Dock of 35 Years Ago - 'Most Sea Breezes readers will lament the decline in British shipping and trade that has taken place in recent years. Containerisation, lack of demand for coal and steel exports has resulted in dozens of shipping companies suddenly becoming non-existent. Perhaps the effects on the coastal trade have not been so severe, although there must be tremendous pressures on small ships to show a profit in these difficult times. In my pre-seagoing days at the age of 12 years I took great interest in the coastal trade at Ely tidal harbour and the ship repair business in the adjacent Penarth Dock in South Wales.

Images of the 'Eilian' at Ely Tidal Harbour from Volume 6 Chapter 6 - Working the Ely Tidal Harbour.

In the tidal river itself there were four, or was it five, coal tips serving a constant stream of small colliers which kept the power station furnaces at Bristol supplied with coal. Most interesting visitors of all perhaps were the three-masted auxiliary schooner 'Eilian' and the ketches 'Result' and 'Traly'. The 'Eilian,' a beautifully kept, steel-built schooner, was I believe, owned by a group of North Devon farmers. Whether these farmers sailed her themselves when their own work was slack I do not know.