Right up until the 1960s a person standing on the Usk’s banks would have seen crowded wharves along both shores. Dockers loaded and unloaded cargoes. Vast ships and smaller tugs populated the waters.
Downstream, just beyond the George Street Bridge, Cashmores shipbreakers sliced up ships on the mud of the riverbank, cutting down once great ships to their keels. Scrap was melted down and remodelled. Bits that still worked were reused.
Local landlords decorated their pubs with parts collected from the scrap yard.
Often, vantage spots to view the destruction were opened to all. Excited children could gaze at the spectacle. Chairs, doors and other furniture still survive in the city, salvaged and sold by Cashmores. The company ended its life in 1976.