Bridgend: Encyclopedia II - Bridgend - Post-war Bridgend

Bridgend - Post-war Bridgend

Bridgend remained a solid market town after the War. In 1948, Newbridge Fields (a short distance from the town centre) hosted the 1948 National Eisteddfod. In 1960, the River Ogmore burst its banks and flooded the town centre. Subsequent floods and extreme weather led the Welsh Water Authority to develop concrete flood defence walls along the banks of the Ogmore River in the town centre. The town centre has never been flooded as badly since, although the defences are considered ugly by locals. The Beeching cuts of the 1960's saw the loss of passenger rail links in the Vale of Glamorgan and to the northern valleys. Bridgend also became the headquarters for South Wales Police. The Vale of Glamorgan link to Barry via Rhoose was re-instated in June 2005.

In the 1970s, Bridgend would begin to see the catalyst of arguably its biggest growth period. The missing section of the M4 motorway was constructed around the town, plans were afoot to change the Waterton Admiralty into an Industrial Estate, and the water supply was improved including new sewage treatment works near Ogmore.

Two major multinational corporations, the Ford Motor Company and Sony set up factories in, or on the outskirts of the new Bridgend Industrial Estate (former Waterton Arsenal).

Bridgend's future was bright, however, the Margaret Thatcher led closure of the Welsh coal industry brought massive unemployment and social problems to the valleys to the north. By the late 1980's all of the coal mines had closed and the now ex-miners either commuted or moved to Bridgend to work on the new industrial estates.

Thanks to the availability of favourable land, a massive new private housing estate at Brackla was constructed from the early 1980s. By the 1990s it had grown to become the largest private housing estate in Europe.

A new Securicor run prison (HM Parc Prison) was built near Coity in the late 1990s. The prison opened in November 1997 and is the only private prison in Wales.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Post-war Bridgend", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki