Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - The Steam Navvy and the Dock Extension of 1883 . . .

You may recall that back at Volume 1, Chapter 7, I covered the extension of the Penarth Dock of 1883 in detail. The Building News of October 1882 published the following :

◊ October 1882 - Penarth Dock - 'The work of extending the dock at Penarth is making satisfactory progress. The contract has been taken by Mr. T. A. Walker, who is represented on the works by Mr. W. R. Parker, and about a thousand men and five steam navvies are employed on the undertaking, the first part of which has been the removal of a hill of more than 78ft. in height above the quay level. This has all been levelled with the aid of blasting-powder and the steam excavators, and part of the dock walls are being built. They are of Pennant stone quarried from the Severn tunnel, for which Mr. Walker is also the contractor, faced with large blocks of red Radyr stone ; the walls are 52 ft. in depth, 22 ft. thick at the foundations, and 7 ft. 6 in. thick at the quay level. The length of the addition to the docks is 800 ft. and the area is 75 acres. About 900,000 cubic yards of earth will be removed, and 36,000 cubic yards of masonry walling erected. The works were commenced in October, 1881, and at present half the earthwork and two-thirds of the masonry are completed. Mr. Henry Fisher, of the Taff Vale Railway Company, is the resident engineer.' - The Building News [547] [499] 27th October 1882.

It is notable that about 1,000 men and FIVE Steam Navvies were employed at that time. The following image provides us with a reminder of the extent of the works at Penarth.

1883 - Views of the extension works complete with Steam Navvy.

The following is the result of research into the type of steam navvy utilised in these works. A highly descriptive article within the 'Engineering' [516] periodical, published during August 1885, confirms that Messrs. Dunbar and Ruston's Steam Navvies were employed at the Penarth Dock Extension works of 1883. The author was Mr. Joseph Ruston, M.P. for Lincoln and a paper was read before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Lincoln.