During the Victorian era Penarth was a highly popular holiday destination, promoted nationally as "The Garden by the Sea"[4] and was packed by visitors from the Midlands and the West Country as well as day trippers from the South Wales valleys, mostly arriving by train.

The shield contains a Draig Goch to denote that the town is in Wales and a sailing vessel recognising Penarth's long association with sea commerce.

[9] Penarth's medieval walled Sheriff's Pound, an early form of multi-purpose gaol, remained in use until the late 18th century, as a place to retain stray sheep, cattle and pigs or to imprison thieves, rustlers and vagabonds.

Even as late as 1851, Penarth was still little more than a small rural farming and fishing village since medieval times, with just 24 houses and 105 residents, being one of five parishes contained within the Hundred of Dinas Powys, with a combined population of just over 300.

Before the pier and dock were built, there was a tiny fleet of local sail-powered fishing vessels based on the main town beach that tied up on the seafront quayside.

[citation needed] The Plymouth estate office retained control over the planning, building and development of the new town, offering 99-year leases and remaining the ground landlord.

[citation needed] The situation would not change until the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, that gave householders the choice of purchasing their freehold or negotiating 999 year extensions on their short leases.

Most of the town's fine architectural features owe their origin to the landowners of the time and the results of their vision can be seen by the many grand buildings and parks which make Penarth what it is today.

In 1886 Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain, originally a passenger vessel but later converted as a coal trader departed from Penarth Dock on what would become its final voyage.

Completed in 1899, from parts cast by T Gregory Engineering Works, Taffs Well, the tunnel remained in use until the autumn of 1965, when it was closed and the ends bricked up, after a series of violent muggings, repeated vandalism and the cost of maintenance becoming uneconomical.

Scrap metals were needed to build tanks and aircraft, so hundreds of Penarth homes lost their traditional Victorian iron railings from the front gardens during the war years.

There was a non-profit 'British Restaurant' at the top end of the Windsor Arcade, where families made homeless by the bombing, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help, could buy a three-course meal for ninepence.

Many of the defensively equipped merchant ships were loaded with American Sherman tanks and their US Army crews that had been billeted in Penarth after training, housed in a vast village of Quonset or Nissen huts that had been built in 'Neale's Wood', now the Northcliffe Estate next to the present-day Headlands School.

From the 1950s, and up until 1965, the basins were utilised by the Royal Navy to mothball dozens of destroyers and frigates from the no longer needed wartime fleet of warships, until they were sold to foreign nations or broken up.

The No 1 dock and outer basin were re-excavated or dredged out to provide some 350 yacht berths, surrounded by extensive modern waterside homes and several marine engineering yards.

The original dock office and Excise House is now in use as a popular restaurant, with only the Grade II listed Marine Hotel remaining derelict and boarded up, awaiting suitable redevelopment plans.

Marine Parade or 'Millionaires' row', with its grand, substantial Victorian houses or modern designer villas with views across the Bristol Channel, is considered to be the finest street in Penarth, although several larger properties are now split as apartments or adapted as residential care homes.

Most employers in Penarth are local services but the town is also home to some larger companies, some of which operate globally, [citation needed] these include the AIM listed EKF Diagnostics, headquartered on Stanwell Road and the startup Robo-advisor Wealthify, acquired by Aviva in 2019.

The rise and fall of the tides at Penarth are the second highest recorded anywhere in the world[28] and on occasions when certain moon phases coincide with the spring and autumn equinoxes the sea level can overspill the esplanade wall and flood the roadway, particularly if in conjunction with a high wind.

The main problem associated with the dry and crumbly nature of the limestone and alabaster rocks, that make up the cliffs that border Penarth, is the continuing and relentless erosion by the sea.

The cliff has retreated many tens of metres even in living memory, with the area around Penarth Head remaining most at threat and several structures once on the clifftop already having been smashed on the beach below.

The two million pound Lottery-funded scheme was planned to include a 98-seat cinema and theatre, a cafe and gallery, bar and a large multi-purpose area that will retain the Victorian vaulted ceiling.

Turner House Gallery is located at the top end of Plymouth Road and is the exhibition pace for Ffotogallery the national photography development agency for Wales.

There is also the historic Penarth Yacht Club, built in 1883, stood next to the new RNLI lifeboat station[31] and its associated shop, together with a wide range of popular cafes and restaurants available on the seafront.

The town's swimming pool and baths built in the late 19th century was closed in the 1980s and, after a short reincarnation as a bar and bistro, has recently been converted into flats while retaining its Victorian exterior.

The clifftop walks to the bays of Lavernock, St Mary's Well and Swanbridge with their beaches and the historic hut where Marconi first transmitted radio messages over open sea remain popular with residents and visitors alike.

These have included pop concerts, yacht regattas and power boat races, donkey derbies, parades, fairs and fetes in the parks, tea dances, stage shows, art exhibitions and spectacular firework displays.

This fixture was the start of the "Baa-Baas" annual South Wales tour from the team's spiritual home of Penarth, which also encompassed playing Cardiff on the Saturday, Swansea on Easter Monday and Newport on the Tuesday.

The longest established is Cogan Coronation AFC, known locally as the 'Coro' that was founded in 1960, playing their home games at the Penarth Leisure Centre recreation fields.

Cogan Coronation players Mark Eley, Liam Beddard and goalkeeper Stewart Owadally have been selected to represent the Football Association of Wales on a number of occasions.