Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Even more aspects - The Chronology of the Proposed Ely Branch : 1834 to 1851 . . .

Colin Chapman [778] continues his research with entries taken from TVR Company Board Minutes :

On the 16th November 1836 the TVR Company Seal was affixed to an Agreement dated 5th August 1836 made between the Company and Robert Clive, et al, in which the TVR Company undertook to construct the Ely Branch within 5 years or, in default, forfeit £56,000 to Robert Clive. [= £6,444,525.25 in 2019] [771]

During the same month, the Board Minutes record 'Notice of the TVR Bill' which is documented within The London Gazette, Vol. II, 1836, Advertisements section and announces :

'Taff Vale Railway.— For an Act to amend and enlarge some of the powers of the Act of the 6th of the King, for making a railway from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, to be called the Taff Vale railway, with branches; and for powers to divert the line of the branch railway to Cogan Pill from the parish of Radyr, in the county of Glamorgan, to a field in the parish of Leckwith, and to make a new line of railway or branches, commencing and terminating in the said county of Glamorgan ; and for power to make a wet dock at Penarth Head.' [100] [499] 

The TVR Board Minutes of 2nd January 1837 records a two pronged approach to Bute : Firstly the Directors resolved to bring the Bill before Parliament but also to enter into negotiations with Bute for an arrangement which would render the 'Ely Dock' unnecessary. I suspect that 'arrangements' were not going to plan as the TVR Minutes record on the 25th October 1837 that it is resolved to prepare property plans for the Ely Branch.

In the meantime the Cambrian newspaper reported progress on the Taff Vale Railway construction thus during August 1837 :

COMMENCEMENT OF THE TAFF VALE RAILWAY. — 'The first stone of a splendid bridge over the Rhondda near Newbridge, for the purpose of conveying the railway from Merthyr to Cardiff, was laid on Wednesday last by Lady Charlotte Guest, amidst a large concourse of deeply interested spectators.