Cardiff Docks ( cy, Dociau Caerdydd) is a port in southern

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. At its peak, the port was one of the largest dock systems in the world with a total quayage of almost . Once the main port for the export of South Wales coal, the Port of Cardiff remains active in the import and export of containers, steel, forest products and dry and liquid bulks.

History

Following the development of the coal found in the

Cynon Valley Cynon Valley () is a former coal mining valley in Wales. Cynon Valley lies between Rhondda and the Merthyr Valley and takes its name from the River Cynon. Aberdare is located in the north of the valley and Mountain Ash is in the south of t ...

Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley ('' ...

Valley, and

Merthyr Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydf ...

areas of South Wales, the export of both coal and iron products required a sea connection to the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

if economic volumes of product were to be extracted. In 1794, the

Glamorganshire Canal The Glamorganshire Canal in South Wales, UK, was begun in 1790. It ran along the valley of the River Taff from Merthyr Tydfil to the sea at Cardiff. The final section of canal was closed in 1951. History Construction started in 1790; being wa ...

was completed, linking the then small town of

with Merthyr, and in 1798 a basin was built, connecting the

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

to the sea. By the 1830s, Cardiff became the pre-eminent iron-exporting port, shipping almost half of British overseas iron exports; between 1840 and 1870, the volume of coal exports increased from 44,350 to 2.219 million tonnes.The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008.

John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute

Bute Docks

Increasing agitation for proper dock facilities led Cardiff's foremost landowner,

John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, KT, FRS (10 August 1793 – 18 March 1848), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1794 and 1814, was a wealthy aristocrat and industrialist in Georgian and early Victorian Britain. He developed the coal ...

, to promote the construction of the (West) Bute Dock. The dock design was by Admiral

William Henry Smyth Admiral William Henry Smyth (21 January 1788 – 8 September 1865) was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hydrographic ...

and the resident engineer was George Turnbull. Two years after the October 1839 dock opening, the

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stag ...

was opened, following much the same route as the canal. With the construction of the new East Bute Dock from 1855, designed by James Walker of Messrs. Walker & Burges and built by

Thomas Cubitt Thomas Cubitt (25 February 1788 – 20 December 1855) was a British master builder, notable for his employment in developing many of the historic streets and squares of London, especially in Belgravia, Pimlico and Bloomsbury. His great-great-g ...

's firm, its opening in 1859 resulted in

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

supplanting

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

as the industrial foundation of

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

, with exports reaching 2 million tons as early as 1862.

Queen Alexandra Dock

Frustration at the lack of development at Cardiff led to rival docks being opened at

Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a weal ...

in 1865 and

Barry, Wales Barry ( cy, Y Barri; ) is a town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, on the north coast of the Bristol Channel approximately south-southwest of Cardiff. Barry is a seaside resort, with attractions including several beaches and the resurrected Bar ...

in 1889. These developments eventually spurred Cardiff into action, with the opening of the Roath Dock in 1887, and the Queen Alexandra Dock in 1907. By then, coal exports from the

South Wales Coalfield The South Wales Coalfield ( cy, Maes glo De Cymru) extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, espec ...

via Cardiff totalled nearly 9 million tons per annum, much of it exported in the holds of locally owned

tramp steamer A boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule, itinerary nor published ports of call, and trades on the spot market as opposed to freight liners. A steamship engaged in the tramp trade is sometimes called ...

s. By 1913, this had risen to 10,700,000 tons, making Cardiff second only to

as the largest coal exporting dock in the world.

Shipping

Cardiff's first steamship was the Llandaff of 1865, and by 1910, there were some 250 tramp steamers owned at Cardiff, by prominent firms such as William Cory & Son, Morel,

Evan Thomas Radcliffe Evan Thomas, Radcliffe and Company was one of the more prosperous and better-known of Cardiff-based shipowning companies, established in 1882 by a Ceredigion sea captain, Evan Thomas, and a Merthyr Tydfil businessman, Henry Radcliffe. Until 193 ...

, Tatem and Reardon-Smith. Each day, the principals of these companies would meet to arrange cargoes of coal for their ships in the opulent

Coal Exchange The Coal Exchange (also known as the Exchange Building) is an historic building in Cardiff, Wales. It is designed in Renaissance Revival style. Built in 1888 as the Coal and Shipping Exchange to be used as a market floor and office building for ...

Mount Stuart Square Mount Stuart Square is a residential and commercial square in Cardiff, Wales. It is located in the Butetown area of the city. Originally developed in the late 1800s as a residential location for nearby dock workers, it quickly became a centre f ...

. This trade reached its pinnacle in 1913, when 10.7 million tons of coal were exported from the port. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, there was a boom in shipping in Cardiff, with 122 shipping companies in existence in 1920. The boom proved short-lived, however;

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

was growing in importance as a maritime fuel, and the terms of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

soon flooded Europe with cheap

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

reparation coal.

Railways

The

was built to transport coal from the South Wales Valleys to the docks. Its headquarters were a currently derelict building in

Cardiff Bay railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Cardiff Bay Railway Station (geograph 6004274).jpg , caption = Cardiff Bay railway station (May 2018) , borough = Cardiff Bay, Cardiff , country = Wales , coordinates = , grid_name = Grid ...

. The building was turned into a railway heritage centre in 1979 by the Butetown Historic Railway Society. By 1994 the Society had started to run

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

hauled passenger services up and down 550 yards of track. However, as the

Cardiff Bay Development Corporation The Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was set up by the United Kingdom Government on 3 April 1987 to redevelop one sixth of the area of Cardiff to create Cardiff Bay. Objectives The Secretary of State for Wales, Nicholas Edwards set out the C ...

had no interest in the railway, the society changed its name to the

Vale of Glamorgan Railway The Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company was built to provide access to Barry Docks from collieries in the Llynvi, Garw and Ogmore areas. Proposed by the coalowners but underwritten by the wealthy Barry Railway Company, it opened in 1897 from near B ...

and moved from the site in 1997 to

Barry Island railway station Barry Island railway station is a railway station, 9¼ miles (15 km) south-west of Cardiff Central railway station, Cardiff Central, serving Barry Island (Vale of Glamorgan), Barry Island ( cy, Ynys y Barri) in South Wales. The station ...

Decline

From 1910 onwards capacity issues meant that the more modern and less tidal

Barry Docks Barry Docks ( cy, Dociau'r Barri) is a port facility in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, a few miles southwest of Cardiff on the north shore of the Bristol Channel. They were opened in 1889 by David Davies and John Cory as an alterna ...

took over as the largest volume export point of coal. Until the early 1920s, Cardiff docks continued to boom as a location for shipping companies, but the fall in demand for Welsh coal caused a dramatic fall in exports. By 1932, in the depths of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

which followed the

General Strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

in 1926, coal exports had fallen to below 5 million tonnes and dozens of locally owned ships were laid-up. Despite intense activity at the port during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(which led to the attentions of the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

during the

Cardiff Blitz The Cardiff Blitz ( cy, Blitz Caerdydd); refers to the bombing of Cardiff, Wales during World War II. Between 1940 and the final raid on the city in March 1944 approximately 2,100 bombs fell, killing 355 people. Cardiff Docks became a Strateg ...

), coal exports continued to decline, finally ceasing in 1964. In 1950, imports outstripped exports for the first time in the port's history. The 1970s saw a short-term import boom, and in the 1980s the port experienced a slight rise in traffic, while much of the former port area began to be regenerated into non-port uses. The port found a niche as an important local centre for general cargo operations.

Modern port facilities

Cranes and Sheds at Queen Alexandra Dock - geograph

Cardiff now has three operational docks capable of handling ships of up to 35,000 tons deadweight: Queen Alexandra Dock, Roath Dock and Roath Basin. Although still owned by the port, Roath Basin is now only used as a hospitality berth, and is only accessible by vessels via Roath Dock. The port has transit sheds with nearly of indoor storage plus of open storage. There are 7

quay A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring location ...

side cranes plus a range of mobile cranes. Cardiff's specialised facilities include a distribution terminal and chill and cold storage for perishables.

Tiger Bay

Tiger Bay Tiger Bay ( cy, Bae Teigr) was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is re ...

was a local

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

for the general Cardiff Docks area, the evocative phrase deriving from the area's rough-and-tumble reputation. Merchant seamen arrived in

from all over the world, only staying for as long as it took to discharge and reload their ships: consequently many murders and lesser crimes went unsolved and unpunished, the perpetrators having sailed for other ports. In Victorian times, the name "Tiger Bay" was used in popular literature and slang (especially that of sailors) to denote any dock or seaside neighbourhood which shared a similar notoriety for danger.

Cardiff Bay

The

was created in 1987 to counter the effects of economic depression in this run-down area. Today, the port of Cardiff and what is now known as

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...

has been totally transformed by the Cardiff Barrage that impounds the Rivers Taff and the Ely to create a massive fresh-water lake across to Penarth Head. Only two docks, the Roath and the Queen Alexandra, remain in use, and just two shipping companies remain, albeit buoyant with their worldwide interests. Shipping movements varying from a couple of movements to 10 or 12 per tide, with trade in timber, oil, scrap and containers.

References

External links

BBC NEWS , In Pictures , 100 years of Queen Alexandra dock
{{UK_Docks Economy of Cardiff Buildings and structures in Cardiff History of Cardiff Ports and harbours of Wales Ports and harbours of the Bristol Channel Coast of Cardiff 1839 establishments in Wales