cardiff bay
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Cardiff is a city steeped in history and has undergone many changes and influences over 1500 years; initially with the settlements of the Celts in 500BC, and over many years Cardiff became a Roman Fort and Norman stronghold. In 1810 Cardiff was just a growing village of less than 2000 inhabitants surrounded by heavily tidal marshland and fed by two rivers, the Taff and the Ely. Laying closely to the south was Butetown, located in the Parish of Saint Mary's. Back then, Cardiff's main industry was the mining and transportation of coal, mainly by big 25 tonne load barges.
As the Industrial Revolution swept over the British Isles, demand for coal grew considerably. The Glamorganshire canal, which was built in 1794 to transport iron from the Merthyr ironworks to Cardiff, could not cope with the strain and as the iron and coal industry expanded the Taff Vale Railway was opened in 1840 to offer an alternative mode of transport for this and to connect the Cardiff and surrounding steelworks to the coal.
By this time John Crichton Stewart the 2nd Marquis of Bute had finished his development of the bay and had just opened the West docks. The building of docks continued untill around 1907 when the last dock, the Queen Alexandra had been built adding to the previous four. The opening of the West Docks gave Cardiff an advantage over other Welsh ports and soon coal from the nearby South Wales Coalfield was being used and exported along with iron and steel, whilst various products including oils and tin were imported. The city prospered, industry exploded and unemployment was rare...