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.
 |
-
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.
-
1841.
The improvement of the port, the ship canal and railroad
meant there were lots more opportunities to find work.
-
1851.
Collieries opened in the Aberdare Valley which meant that
the port gained importance as a trading centre for coal.
|
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. |
|
|
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.
|
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]
|
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.
 |
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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