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

4.4 - Subsequent Alterations made to the Lock and Sea Entrance

The lock at Penarth Dock remained almost unchanged during the useful life of the dock. several changes of lock gates and other equipment took place but the structure of the lock and the method of operating the gates remained the same.

However the pattern of the use of the lock changed did change. As vessels got steadily larger they were unable to fit into the lock chamber and the lock became used just as an entrance with the inner gates being left permanently open.

Eventually, probably sometime after the dock ceased being a commercial port and became a place for vessels to be laid up, the inner gates were removed. What effect this had (if any) on the sluicing equipment for the inner gates is unknown.

The sea entrance also remained reasonably intact for the useful life of the dock although due to the fact that the outer gates were removed in the early 1920's and the gate recesses boarded up.

In order to support the inner gates during extreme high tides and bad weather storm struts were fitted. These consisted of a pair of iron frames (one for each gate) which hinged directly opposite the gate hinge inside the gate recess. They could be swung out when required and used to brace the gates. In order to fit them the recesses had to be deepened and some stonework added to the original structure.

The storm struts were operated by hydraulic rams arranged around the top of the hinge of each storm strut. Figure 21 shows some details of the storm struts.

Figure 21 - Details of the 'Storm Struts' fitted to the Inner Sea Entrance Gates.