Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - 'Ellenbank' - and her visit to Penarth Dock in 1885 . . . .

During June 2026, Julie and myself had a restful holiday for a week based in an apartment on the quayside of the Elizabeth Dock at Maryport up on the Cumbrian Coast. This view, taken from the lounge window, shows the Elizabeth Dock at high tide with its trawlers, working boats and distant the shores and hills of Dumfries and Galloway on the far side of the Solway Firth in southwest Scotland. Elizabeth Dock was opened in 1857 and is tidal with its lock gates left open. The Senhouse Dock beyond was opened in 1884 and in common with Penarth Dock has been converted into a marina with about 170 yachts moored therein. However, unlike Penarth Dock, its heritage has been respected and uncontrolled waste has not been permitted to be used to bury its historical story in shite!

The weather was kind to us (except for an exceptional thunderstorm one night) and allowed us to explore the local towns and ports from which iron ore and coal was exported and from which fishing prospered.

The ports of Whitehaven and Workington just down the coast from Maryport were also involved in exporting considerable quantities of minerals especially in the Irish coal trade. The high quality, local, red haematite iron ore was shipped to Cardiff and then transferred via the Taff Vale Railway bound for the ironworks at Merthyr etc. from the mid 19th century until local iron-works opened and by the early 1880's the locally produced ore was used being supplemented by Spanish ores and thus, exportation to Cardiff ceased.