Offa’s Dyke Association & Centre
Offa’s Dyke Centre end of season
October opening hours
10am – 4pm
Friday 11th – Sunday 13th
Friday 18th – Sunday 20th
Friday 25th – Sunday 27th
The Centre will then be closed until Easter 2025
To hire the Centre during the winter months contact oda@offasdyke.org.uk
We look forward to seeing you in 2025
For a taster video of our interpretive displays on Offa’s and Wat’s Dyke visit our YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orWoc6FQakA
Offa’s Dyke Association Charitable Incorporated Organisation No: 1203068. Our charitable object:
To promote for the public benefit, in the border counties region of England and Wales, the conservation, preservation, protection and understanding of Offa’s Dyke and similar or linked sites and structures of archaeological or historical interest.
Please support our tea room, book and souvenir shop in the Offa’s Dyke Centre as well as our online shop for your maps and guide books. Income from donations also helps to pay for the running of the Centre and for the delivery of our charitable objects the length of Offa’s Dyke. Subscription donations from our members are our lifeline – please consider joining the Association.
We are reliant on volunteer help who support our paid staff. Their efforts make a difference and ensure that the Centre can open to visitors. If you are interested in finding out about volunteer roles then please contact oda@offasdyke.org.uk to arrange for a chat.
We have currently have vacancies for trustees. If you are interested in helping the ODA deliver its charitable objects both within the Centre and beyond along the length of Offa’s Dyke then please contact oda@offasdyke.org.uk to arrange for a chat with Chairman Dave McGlade. See here for details of our treasurer vacancy.
On the days that it is closed the Centre is available for hire for private events and as a venue for conferences. Contact oda@offasdyke.org.uk for information. Visit our online shop for maps and guidebooks for your 2024 holiday to see Offa’s Dyke and to walk Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail.
For Offa’s Dyke Path enquiries, for example questions about the route, diversions, or to report a damaged sign etc email the National Trail Officer from the contact page on the National Trail website www.nationaltrail.co.uk/offasdyke
Offa’s Dyke Centre car parking
If you would like to leave your car at the Offa’s Dyke Centre while you are walking the National Trail then we invite a suggested donation of £5 per car per day. Space is limited so it is essential that spaces are pre-booked. cars parked at owners’ risk. For more information contact office@offasdyke.org.uk
For online shop enquiries contact shop@offasdyke.org.uk
For ODA membership enquiries contact membership@offasdyke.org.uk
To contact the editor of our members’ magazine ‘Borderland’ contact editor@offasdyke.org.uk
Advertise your business on our website
Advertise your B&B, taxi firm or walking holiday company on our website for £50 per calendar year (January to December. Enquiries contact oda@offasdyke.org.uk
Who we are and what we do
Founded originally in 1969, on 15th May 2023 the Charity Commission added the new Offa’s Dyke Association (ODA) Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) onto the register of charities (No: 1203068). The new Association replaced the old and on 1st July 2023 an historic meeting of members of the old ODA voted to wind up the old charity and to transfer its assets to the new. As a CIO the governance of the new ODA is underpinned with a legally sound governing document that is fully compliant with charity law.
The new ODA, is the only organisation in England and Wales with a brief for all of Offa’s Dyke, in both countries, not just the fifty percent that is coincident with Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail. We are a volunteer-led charity run by a Board of trustees, we promote the conservation of Offa’s Dyke and the public’s understanding and enjoyment of it. Our charitable object registered with the Charity Commission:
“To promote for the public benefit, in the border counties region of England and Wales, the conservation, preservation, protection and understanding of Offa’s Dyke and similar or linked sites and structures of archaeological or historical interest.”
We provide services to users of Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail in order to generate funds to help us deliver our charitable object.
We also partner Cadw, Historic England and Shropshire County Council with the delivery of the Offa’s Dyke Conservation Project and we operate our own Conservation Fund. The Association is based at the Offa’s Dyke Centre in Knighton (postcode LD7 1EN; W3W walled.unity.apart) at roughly the half way point along the Dyke and National Trail.
The Offa’s Dyke Association is self-funding and receives no external financial support towards the revenue cost of running the Centre. We do, however, pride ourselves on running a very professional visitor centre and museum and in 2021 we opened a brand new exhibition, curated by Professor Keith Ray. The exhibition interprets both Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes. We are gradually expanding our wider education and community work.
This all takes time, willingly gifted by trustees and our volunteers, and we would like to do more but there is a limit to what we can do without help. So, if you are interested in lending a hand as a volunteer at the Centre or if you feel that you have skills useful to us as a trustee then please get in touch by emailing oda@offasdyke.org.uk We currently have trustee vacancies for Secretary and Treasurer. We also need assistance with HR.
We sell guide books and maps both online and in the Centre together with an extensive range of quality giftware, and guests in our tea room, overlooking the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, will enjoy the best view in town.
Our invaluable accommodation listing, the Essential Guide to Walking Offa’s Dyke Path (formerly called the Where to Stay Guide is available from our on-line shop.
Join the Association
All interested individuals and organisations interested in the Welsh Border region are invited to join. Full membership is £20 (£15 in first year if paid by Direct Debit) a year for individuals or £25 (£20 in first year if paid by Direct Debit) a year for joint membership. Charity and community not-for-profit groups join for £20 per year. Every membership subscription supports our Offa’s Dyke Conservation Fund which helps to pay for practical conservation projects that promote the long term well being of the monument.
