Barry, Vale of Glamorgan dock basin was opened in 1889 to be followed by two other docks and extensive port installations. The Barry Railway brought coal down from the South Wales Valleys to the new docks whose trade grew from one million tons in the first year, to over nine million tons by 1903. The port was crowded with ships and had flourishing ship repair yards, cold stores, flour mills and an ice factory. By 1913, Barry was the largest coal exporting port in the world. Behind the docks rose the terraced houses of Barry which, with Cadoxton, soon formed a sizeable town. The
Coal industry in Wales Coalfield extends from near Caergwrle in the north, to Wrexham, Ruabon, Rhosllannerchrugog and Chirk in the south, a small part extending into Shropshire in the Oswestry area. Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the earth's crust and has a long history of being exploited. Archaeological evidence shows that it was burned in funeral pyres in Wales during the Bronze Age and cinders have been found in Roman settlements in Britain. Originally the coal would have come from outcropping coal seams, and from lumps of sea coal gathered from the foreshore. By the seventeenth century, coal was being dug