As an important port for the south Wales coalfield, Barry docks had been established in 1890s as well the extension of the railway to the town. In the meantime, Woodham & Sons was established as a scrapyard which, by the 1950s had become Woodham Brothers and was dealing predominantly in scrap metal from railway carriages after the 1955 Modernisation Plan. This was a plan which included phasing out steam locomotion by scrapping 16,000 such trains in which Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry played a large part.