History

There has been a residential camp at Ogmore since the late 1940's, initially, bringing young people from all walks of valleys life to the coasts for a weeks holiday at the seaside. In the 1950's the Education Authorities opened the Camp for academic, sports and arts residential courses. Until the late 1960's residents were housed in wooden huts. Pictures of these buildings were recently given to the Trust by community members and are shown below.

At the end of the 1960's the wooden buildings began to be replaced with new brick buildings and these are the buildings seen at Ogmore today. We still retain one of the old wooden buildings, however, accommodating both our laundry and storage facilities.

Growth of a Charitable Trust

Following the Unitary Authority changes of the mid 1990's the ownership of the residential camp changed hands and fell to the  control of Bridgend County Borough Council. Sadly soon after, due to financial constraints, the Centre was closed and mothballed.

This was seen as a great injustice by many, who as children had stayed at the Centre and in fact their children have stayed at the Centre during more recent times. In 1997 a group calling themselves 'The Friends of Ogmore' fought hard with petitions protesting for the reopening of the camp. With the fantastic support of the County Music Societies, Friends of Ogmore were able to raise significant funds. This hard work resulted in the opportunity to reopen the site initially for a for a short period, to prove the need and sustainability of the facility.

In 1998 the 'Friends of Ogmore' transformed into the Ogmore Centre Trust, a Charitable Trust and Limited Company. The Local Authority gave the Trust a 6 year lease and in fact in the past few weeks, 6 years later, we have now been granted an extended 99 year Lease.

Ogmore Centre Trust since it's inauguration in 1998, has welcomed over 50,000 young people through it's doors for residential course with durations of 2.5 to 5 day stays.

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