Rendell died before the harbour was finished, and his work was taken on by Sir John Hawkshaw.  One month after Rendell's death Brunel's ship the "Great Eastern" came to Holyhead on a trail trip to see if the new harbour would be a suitable place from where she could depart for her fist transatlantic crossing.  Had this been the case special reduced tickets from London were to be available.  There was great interest in this project.  So much to in fact, that Gladstone (then Chancellor of the Exchequer), railway and steamship directors and officers of the Royal Hotel attended a banquet (especially laid on for the occasion) took the French Prince Napoleon around the vessel.  Fifteen excursion trains arrived at the station in one day!  Sadly, however, the Great Eastern was too large and there wasn't enough "sea room" for comfort.  She sailed for Southampton and did not visit Holyhead again.
    In the next couple of years the LNWR developed the inner harbour with a large goods shed and berthing facilities on the west shore, opened on 1st January 1866, and enlarged in 1870 with a new platform and waiting room the LNWR steamers.
    In 1873 a new greeore service required massive dredging operations, a new large warehouse on the east quay and  a wonderful new station and five-storey, 65 bedroomed red-bricked station hotel (opened on 17th June 1880).  The platforms (the west being 1,260ft long, and the east being 1,130ft long) were divided by the harbour angle which meant that passengers could transfer from train to ship with greater ease, and each quay could berth two ships.  The station was opened by the Prince of Wales and a large clock was built to mark the occasion.
    From 1902 the LNWR service continually improved in comfort and speed, but had a rival for Irish traffic from the Fishguard/Rosslare Irish Sea crossing route.  Therefore the Holyhead/Dun Laoghaire route was highly publicised, including the publishing of a guide to Holyhead and the new hotel.  The successful berthing of White Line's Liner the "Cedric" in 1909 gave the Port publicity a great boost.  White Line decided that ships on the Liverpool-New York run could call at Holyhead saving many hours on the London connection, for rail passengers.
    In  1909, the Line announced that Liners Laurentic and Megantic in the Canadian trade would call at the Port with a possibility of the Olympic and Titanic Liners coming to Holyhead too, but due to bad weather conditions and with fewer passengers taking advantage of the time saving crossing, sadly in 1910 the liners stopped coming to the Port.
                                              CLICK HERE to continue.........