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

1.3 - Illustrations

The original plans for Penarth Dock appear to no longer exist, however, some extracts from these plans have appeared in various publications and it is these which form the basis for most of the illustrations included in this document. Due to the small size and generally low quality of the original illustrations they were not suitable for direct inclusion into this document and so they have been copied, by hand, into a more acceptable form. Where possible this process was carried out using printed dimensions as the basis for the enlargement process, however, much of the process had to done using the actual drawing itself. A more detailed discussion of each illustration included in this document can be found in Appendix A.

1.4 - Terms of Reference

Despite the fact that the site of Penarth Dock does not lie on a straight line and is not orientated on a north/south basis for the process of referring to the site within the text these conditions will be assumed. Thus what is in fact the north-west end of the dock (the end furthest from the sea) will be referred to in the text as the west end of the dock, what is in fact the north-east end of the dock (the end nearest the sea) will be referred to in the text as the east end of the dock and so on.

The terms inner and outer will be used to describe certain aspects of the sea entrance and lock. The terms inner refers to the end furthest from the sea whilst the term outer refers to the end nearest to the sea. The terms front and back are used to describe the gates at Penarth Dock. The term front refers to the side of the gate which makes contact with the cill whilst the term back refers to the side which bears the head of water pressure when the gates are closed.

Dimensions relating to Penarth Dock are given in imperial units only. Linear measurements are usually given in feet and inches, area measurements are normally given in square feet (or acres if appropriate) and volume measurements are given in cubic feet or cubic yards.

Finally it is worth pointing out that when the term hydraulic power is used in the text this refers to the use of high pressure water as a power source. The use of hydraulic power is discussed briefly in Appendix B.