• Time from Bridgend to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Venue:  1 hour 2 minutes

• Distance from Bridgend to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Reception Venue: 39 miles

1. Population 39,429. Welsh name is Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr, which in English is "Head of the Bridge on the Ogmore".

2. Newcastle Castle (on Newcastle Hill, overlooking the town centre) was built in 1106 and Ogmore Castle was built in 1116.

3. Bridgend is located at a ford on the River Ogmore, which used to be the main route between East and West Wales.

4. To the north of Bridgend, three rivers merge -  River Ogmore, Llynfi River and Garw River. To the south, two rivers merge, River Ewenny and River Ogmore which both flow into the Bristol Channel.

5. In 1801, the population of Bridgend County was 6000; rising to 61,000 by 1900, it is now 139,200.

6. Bridgend was never blitzed in WW2 due to air pockets making bombing hazardous, and also possibly due to proximity of a POW camp at Island Farm. The biggest escape attempt by German P.O.W.s in Britain was made at Bridgend's Island Farm Camp. A large munitions factory and an underground munitions storage facility at Brackla served as an overspill of the Royal Arsenal, Woowich. Had Bridgend been bombed, the destruction of the munitions stored here could have changed the course of the war.

7. Bridgend is now a market town. In 1960 the River Ogmore burst its banks and flooded the town and with worsening weather the river overflowed on further occasions, necessitating the building of flood defences.

8. Bridgend is also the headquarters of the South Wales Police due to Bridgend's location exactly halfway between Swansea and Cardiff.

9. Bridgend grew rapidly in the 1970's, with the completion of the M4 around the town, while Ford Motor Company and Sony set up factories on the new Bridgend Industrial Estate. The 1980's saw the development of the privately owned Brackla Housing Estate - Brackla is now the largest private housing estate in Europe.

10. The McArthur Glen designer shopping centre opened in 1998 and is now a popular tourist destination. Subsequent pedestrianisation of Bridgend town centre is said to have damaged retail trade due to parking problems and lack of access. After a new bus station was built and alterations to traffic movements around the town, several fairs were introduced, increasing the number of visitors to the town up to 900,000 a year.

11. Bridgend recovered quickly from the decline of the coal industry as other forms of employment were created. Bridgend has among the highest wages of South Wales. The large industrial estates are occupied mainly by manufacturing businesses. Ford has invested over £300m in its Bridgend factory in recent years. Lidl has its headquarters in Bridgend. The service sector, particularly retail, is the main employer, employing 42,900, as against 13,100 in manufacturing/ construction.

12. Parts of the film Lawrence of Arabia were filmed on the sand dunes of Merthyr Mawr.