Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - A History of Penarth Dock by Roy Thorne . . .

The Penarth Dock could not but be successful. There was a great demand for Welsh coal ; its entrance was only a short distance from deep water ; after the deepening of the Cefn- y-Wrach shoal the cut was several feet below the dock sill and made approach for larger vessels easy, and the dock was tidal.

At high tide the gates of the lock, basin and dock could be opened simultaneously so allowing vessels to move in and out without hindrance. Furthermore, the dock and railway were controlled by one company. The Taff Vale Railway Company.

"Coal brought to bank in the morning has often been shipped at Penarth in time for the empty waggons to be returned to the colliery and refilled the same day, and coal required for urgent shipment to complete the cargo of a vessel has been conveyed from pit to port in a much shorter time than would have been possible if the transit and shipment had been in separate hands." [614]

Penarth was growing and in 1875 the three parishes of Llandough, Cogan and Penarth were united as Penarth Local Board. The total population of the three parishes in 1871 was 3,104. In 1881 the population had doubled to 6,228.

It was the intention of Mr. Forrest, the Windsor family's agent, to make the town, "not only a place of great commercial activity but to transform it into a beautiful and commodious watering place, a successful competitor with other places of summer resort, and one that will doubtless be very largely patronised by seaside visitors and summer excursionists." [1169]

Penarth never became "a successful competitor", but as the land slopes towards the south from the headland it became an attractive place in which to live. In reality it became a "suburb" of Cardiff, although it has never been part of the city.

To cater for the professional and managerial men travelling to Cardiff, Mr. Forrest, the agent, was largely instrumental in forming the Penarth Extension Railway. The line ran from the G.W.R. station at Cardiff along the G.W.R. curve until the T.V.R. line was reached about one quarter of a mile above the Grangetown Bridge, and there to an intermediate station at Cogan Pill. From there the Penarth Extension was made directly to Penarth, carrying eight trains daily to and from Cardiff, and this service was opened for passenger traffic on 20th February 1878.