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The Offa’s Dyke Centre is now closed
until spring 2024
We will make an announcement in the new year about the Centre’s re-opening in the spring when we look forward to welcoming visitors for the new season. The Centre, meanwhile, is available for hire during the winter months 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.
Offa’s Dyke Centre licensed venue for marriages and civil ceremonies
We have reduced the cost of hire of the Centre for ceremonies during the winter closed season to £200. Enquiries contact oda@offasdyke.org.uk
Pre-Christmas special price of £9.99 for Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 201 ‘Knighton & Presteigne’
A key map for visiting some of the best preserved sections of Offa’s Dyke. The OS new recommended retail price of the map is £12.99. Until Christmas we are matching the OS Black Friday price of £9.99. Visit our online shop for this and all your National Trail guide books and maps. Shopping with us helps to support the Association deliver its charitable objectives.
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 for more information about how the scheme works contact office@offasdyke.org.uk
For online shop enquiries contact oda@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.
We do not receive any form of financial assistance from either national or local government towards the 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, interpreting 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. You can download our English pdf leaflet here, a gallwch lawrlwytho’r fersiwn Cymraeg yma.
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 a year for individuals or £25 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. If you would like a sample pdf copy of our Newsletter then please download our Winter 2019 edition here.
