Huw Daniel, Secretary OVLH&HS

Born in 1961, in the house I still live in, 6 River Street, Ogmore Vale. Married for 31 years with two grown up daughters and one grandson.

Lived in Ogmore Vale for my whole life with the exception of 1978-88 when the Queen parted with a shilling to pay for me to travel the world (and paint most of it White).

Though she was obviouly watching the purse strings as I served in West Germany (BAOR), Cyprus (several times so the queen must have had some good deals) and the UK, including a fascinating posting to the Outer Hebrides (Benbecula), where I had several opportunities to serve at what was later to become a World Heritage Site, St. Kilda as part of the Royal Artillery Range, (Outer Hebrides).

Whilst I can`t see Ogmore Vale acheiving such a status, it has nevertheless, a fascinating history of all it`s own and whilst it`s fair to say the valley`s development mirrors many South Wales coal bearing valley`s there are as with all our valleys, unique points of interest that makes the valley a worthy area of study.

With that in mind, and to try and find out why my family ended up in the Northern Bridgend valleys, I joined the then fledgling Ogmore Valley Local History & Heritage Society in 1999. The Society was formed out of a Bridgend County Borough Council run Local History Course in 1998 when the members of that course decied that they had gathered enough interesting material to possibly publish a pamphlet to hand out amongst the community.

The original secretary left at the conclusion of the course so I "volunteered" and have held the role ever since along with the roles of Publisher, Archivist and Fundraiser!

The Pamphlet never actually materialised but the material gathered in that first year was turned into a professionally produced A4 sized "Journal 2000" with an impressive first run of 500 copies. It was an immediate success selling out within months and encouraging the group to press on and publish a "Journal" of local interest articles every year since. Currently standing at Volume 21 with an additional publication of "The Postcard History of Blackmill" and the 2004 "Fatal Accidents of the Ogmore Valley, 1865-1983".

Despite the publishing success, the aims of the Society when formed in 1999 and still true to this day, is to gather any and all information pertaining to the History and Heritage of the Ogmore Valley which we are also quite successful at with an electronic archive containing many thousands of images, a physical archive containing relics from the valley`s past and a rich Data Archive containing information specific to the valley and its unhabitants not available anywhere else in the world.

We have, as a Society forged strong links with the two remaining local schools and with Ogmore Vale Primary School in particular, where since the new school opened in 2003 we have with the Head Teacher`s full co-operation installed The Ogmore Valley Miners Memorial, a Timeline of wall plaque`s in the Junior Wing, our complete Physical Archive in three large Museum cases and more recently relocated and re-dedicated the former Ogmore Grammar School World War II Memorial Board.

We now also have several.museum cases in the recently (2021) opened Nantymoel Heritage Hub where we now hold our regular fortnightly.