Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - The Cooper family of boat-builders at Penarth and Pill . . .

The 1861 Census [674] also confirms that John Hill (or Hile) Cooper (Shipwright), Charles's eldest son, now aged 32, was living nearby with wife Sophia, a daughter and two sons at 6 Water Lane, St. George, Easton-in-Gordano.

◊ 1864 - Mr. Cooper's ship-building yard at Penarth was mentioned within the Cardiff Times in 1864 : 'Some ten years, on the present site of the Penarth Docks, stood a solitary house on the green sward, the favourite haunt of the noisy sea-gull, and pleasure seekers on holidays, where they used to climb the greasy pole and race in sacks, &c. On the margin of the water the shipbuilding yard of Mr. Cooper was situated, in which he built his tiny barks (barques); but all this has disappeared as if by magic.' - Cardiff Times [019] [361] 9th September 1864.

The foregoing suggests that Charles Cooper was working at Penarth some ten years prior to 1864. The 1861 Census above indicates that his sons could be working with Charles at Penarth and/or Pill. Further, the obvious mode of transport between Pill and Penarth would have been the family 1858 schooner 'Six Brothers'. The commute time would have been about an hour each way given a fair wind and the working day would need to be planned according to the tide!