Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Report upon Penarth Dock - 1984 . . .

1.1 - Sources of Introduction

This document was produced from a variety of technical publications most of which date back to the time when the site of Penarth Dock was being developed or to the time when it was actually in use as a commercial port.

In order to prevent the main text from becoming confusing and difficult to read the practice of inserting references into the main text has been avoided and instead a fairly extensive discussion regarding the references used is provided as a separate section.

1.2 - Accuracy of Information

Where possible the information used to prepare this document has been checked for accuracy and consistency, however, it should be noted that due to the age and nature of most of the sources of information and also due to the fact that no original technical material about Penarth Dock appears to exist complete checking of every single item of information was not possible.

There are two distinct categories of information which have been used to prepare this document and it is worthwhile to briefly mention them and point out their respective accuracy.

The first category is that which covers information which directly relates to Penarth Dock.This information consisted of photographs, drawings and textural descriptions. Although generally accurate a certain amount of care had to be taken since some of this type of information contained misleading misprints and incorrectly drawn plans.

The second category of information is that which concerns general principles and ideas which could have easily applied to Penarth Dock given what evidence is available. This category of information is clearly less accurate that the former since its interpretation is somewhat subjective in nature.

The text will attempt to distinguish between the two categories of information wherever necessary. In the case of the second category the evidence for a particular conclusion will be presented in order that the reasoning involved may be followed.