Theodore Jacobson - Cardiff docks, coal and steel. (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, October 02, 2016, 02:16 (2968 days ago) @ Mike Pinchin

Thanks Mike, that's a great map, especially if like me you're a fan of old industry and railways. It clearly shows the site of the new Iron works that Theodore helped to build c1890, the row of blast furnaces may be seen to the right(east) of the words "Dowlais Cardiff Works", shown as a row of small circles surrounded by the railway lines (used 24/7 to feed coal to the furnaces and take away the clinker and steel). Immediately east of them and towards Cornelia Street is the Sulphur & Copper Works, so any winds coming off the sea (which is just south of the map) would make Cornelia Street a rather smelly and probably unhealthy place to live !

Yes, as you say it's no longer there, like the steelworks all gone now.
By WW1 the Dowlais iron-cum-steel works at East Moors was under the ownership of the giant GKN company and was a world-force in quality steel manufacturing, especially large plate for ship-building in Belfast and the Tyne. As late as 1935 the plant was producing 3 million tons of steel a year !. Although Cardiff was bombed in WW2 the steelworks area largely escaped, so the houses weren't redeveloped because of bomb damage as with East London for example. Hower by the 1960s the steelworks was going into decline as new works in the Far East produced far cheeper steel. Similarly Welsh coal output was going into decline; after WW1 the Versailles Treaty meant that German "reparation" coal was far cheeper, plus steam ships and industrial boilers switched to oil-firing, so in general Cardiff's docks fell into steep decline, as did the area and it's inhabitants that had given the city it's prosperity.

However I do recall that as late as the early 1980s Cardiff City's football ground still carried huge painted hoardings backing the Steelworks, it was loved locally as THE major employer despite being an overwhelming eyesore and source of pollution.

However by then the area was now in severe decline and
"In 1979 the Eastmoors Steelworks finally closed and the newly-named Welsh Development Agency (formerly Welsh Industrial Estates Corporation) took responsibility for the clearance and site preparation of several hundred acres of land between Splott and the docks. The early 1980s saw the continuation of this trend. One of the most dramatic announcements of the time came in 1984, with the designation of an Urban Development Area comprising 80 acres of derelict land around the Bute East Dock. Tarmac was awarded the development rights which involved housing, offices and leisure. It was the forerunner to the much larger Cardiff Bay project which started in 1987, the Tarmac company stayed with it until it was completed in 2002."

Regarding that 1901 map, it bears good comparison with these aerial photos from 1929. The first shows the smoke from the steel and sulphur works drifting due east across Cornelia Street, just behind the Sulphur Works chimney at far right of the shot.
http://orapweb.rcahms.gov.uk/coflein/W/WPW029421.jpg

This photo from above the Bristol Channel includes the eastern end of the Roath Dock (built 1887), which lies parallel with the sea and is accessed from the River Taff (Cardiff Bay) to the west, again Cornelia Rd is on the far right of the Sulphur Works.
http://orapweb.rcahms.gov.uk/coflein/W/WPW029432.jpg

This map from 1901 is the adjoining page due south of the one Mike posted, showing the Roath Dock and what is now called Cardiff Bay.
http://maps.nls.uk/view/102183921

Best finish now as appreciate this is straying off the Forest of Dean area, altho these activities were very much in line with the Dean's history.