ill, which was approved by Parliament as the Penarth Extension Railway Act in 1876. They extended the line privately, opening it on 20 February 1878.[12]


David Davies
Construction[edit]
Project launch[edit]

Lord Windsor (later Earl of Plymouth) holds out spade to cut the first sod of Barry Dock on Castleland Point in 1884
In 1883 a group of mine owners applied for parliamentary permission to build a dock at Barry and a new railway to serve it.[8] Barry Sound was a natural choice for the dock site since comparatively little excavation was needed.[13] David Davies and John Cory were spokesmen for the group.[9] Davies, son of a small farmer in Montgomeryshire, was founder of the Ocean Coal Company.[14] He was the leader of the Rhondda mine owners, and was already experienced in railway construction.[15] Cory was establishing a network of coal bunkering depots around the world.[14] At first rejected, the group won permission for the port and railway in August 1884.[8] On 14 November 1884 a group of ship and mine owners "trudged out to Castleland Point—near the later Dock Offices—to dig a small hole in the ground with the aid of a ceremonial spade, a wheelbarrow and a plentiful supply of planking to keep the autumn mud off their shoes".[2]

The lead engineer was John Wolfe Barry, assisted by Thomas Forster Brown and Henry Marc Brunel, son of the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. John Robinson was the resident engineer and the works were built by T.A. Walker.[16] Barry was son of the architect Charles Barry, and was the engineer of Tower Bridge, Surrey Commercial Docks, Natal Harbour and many other major works.[17] Houses were built for the construction workers that would be used by the dock workers after the docks had been opened.[3] Laborers and shopkeepers began to flood into the area.[2]

Dams and excavation[edit]

No.1 Dock under construction
Before construction could start the site of the dock and quays, covering 200 acres (81 ha), had to be clear of water. Three dams were built from the island to the mainland. The center dam divided the dock area in half, another was further west and a third dam extended east across what would be the entrance. The two outer dams completely closed off the site from the sea. The center dam was built without much difficulty by simply tipping material to form an embankment, although some of the earth sank into the mud, so more had to be added.[18]

The western dam caused much more trouble, since it rested on mud that varied in depth to upwards of 40 feet (12 m). The ends of the dam were formed by tipping earth from wagons run out from the mainland and the island. In the centre, th