She was joined in the venture by several prominent politicians and businessmen and, in 1858, engineer John Hawkshaw designed the dock, curving along the south bank of the River Ely.

Though Baroness Windsor and her grandson Robert were intended to perform the ceremony, they failed to arrive in time for the high tide.

[4] The Taff Vale Railway took a 999-year lease on Penarth Dock, despite having to fight a legal action against Cardiff's Marquess of Bute as far as the House of Lords to enable them to do so freely.

The Ely Subway, a pedestrian tunnel beneath the river, was opened in 1900 to provide a shortcut for workers walking between the dock and Grangetown, and was in operation until 1963.

[2] Trade declined after the Great War, despite all the coal production of the western South Wales Valleys being sent via Penarth.