Paddle steamer memories

These wooden piles in Cardiff Bay are all that's left of the jetty where the Campbell's Steamers used to moor - paddle steamers plying their trade between Cardiff, Weston-super-Mare, Minehead and Ilfracombe.

I recall childhood journeys in the '50s and early '60s across the Bristol Channel on the paddle steamers, for day trips or caravan holidays.

Before the Severn Bridge, the drive by road from Cardiff to Weston took many hours, north-east through Lydney and Chepstow, almost as far as Gloucester, before turning south towards Somerset. But a paddle steamer took only one hour to make the sea crossing.

Nowadays much of what we used to call The Docks is termed Cardiff Bay, with restaurants, the Welsh Assembly building and the Millennium Arts Centre attracting thousands of visitors.

It's a fine development, though a slightly false note is struck by the name Mermaid Quay. There were no mermaids to be seen in Cardiff Docks when it was the busiest coal port in the world!