West Bute Dock, 1839
[Q/D/P/50]
East Bute Dock, 1855 [Q/D/P/61] |
During the 19th century there was a growing demand for iron, and later coal. They came from the valleys of Glamorgan where Bute owned vast areas of land. He decided to build docks at Cardiff to make it easier to export the minerals from the valleys to the rest of the world. The Bute Ship Canal (later known as the West Dock) opened in 1839. The Taff Vale Railway was built from Cardiff to Merthyr. It was finished in 1841. This together with the Bute Ship Canal meant that there were very good routes between the places where iron and coal were mined, and Cardiff. The East Bute Dock opened in 1855. |
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The census statistics show the reasons for the enormous changes in Cardiff as people saw them at the time.
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1831. People living in South Wales had a very difficult time. They were poor farmers, with little hope of changing the way they lived unless they moved to Cardiff to find work.
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1841. The improvement of the port, the ship canal and railroad meant there were lots more opportunities to find work.
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1851. Collieries opened in the Aberdare Valley which meant that the port gained importance as a trading centre for coal.
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A map of Cardiff drawn in 1851
[DCH/23]
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The docks in 1870 [OS 43:15 and 47:3 2nd edition] |
Cardiff continued to grow as an export and business centre, and the docks expanded again with the opening of the Roath Basin in 1874. This was further enlarged by the Roath Dock opened in 1887 and by 1889 congestion at Cardiff led to the development of the docks at Barry. The last dock built in Cardiff was the Queen Alexandra Dock completed in 1907. |
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The growing importance of Cardiff as a trading centre for coal fuelled the demand for workers. Sailors, dock and railway workers flocked to the city from across the Birtish Isles, Europe and further afield. [DPROCAC/63393, 1876] |
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The commercial centre of Cardiff was also based at the docks. In 1886, the Coal Exchange opened, a building designed by Seward & Jones. For the first time businessmen trading coal had a central meeting point. The first million pound deal was struck there in 1907. This was a very important day.
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Section through the Cardiff Coal and Shipping Exchange.
[BC/S1/4096.2]
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The Exchange was refurbished in 1912, an event celebrated by a banquet.
[DCOMC/EX/3]
Ticket to the opening of the new Exchange.
[DCOMC/EX/1]
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By 1913, 13.7 million tons of cargo was exported from the city; 10.5 million tons were coal.
During the First World War Britain’s coal was produced mostly for the Navy. Only a small amount was left to be sold. There was however corresponding increase in demand for crew members which led, at the end of the war, to riots when hundreds of soldiers were demobbed.
Following the war there was again a huge demand for coal and the price at £6 per ton was five times what it had been in 1914.
In 1922 Great Western Railway took over and ran the docks. This brought to an end the relationship between the Bute family and the docks which had lasted nearly 85 years.
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A gradual decline followed until the Second World War brought about a brief revival. The docks on the safer Western side of Britain were vital for the import of strategic material from America. Following the war Cardiff’s importance as a coal exporting centre again fell, the Coal Exchange closed in 1958 and the last coal was exported from the city in 1964. |
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