BRIDGEND, urban district, Glamorganshire, Wales, on both sides of the River Ogwr (whence its Welsh name Penbont-ar Ogwr) . Pop. (1931) 10,033. The town is an old agricultural centre on the fertile plain of south Glamorgan, and like most bridge settlements, it seems to have grown up in two parts—Newcastle on the west and Oldcastle on the east of the river. In Newcastle there are ruins of a 12th century Norman castle. The proximity of the high ground of central Glamorganshire made the town that grew around the bridgehead nuclei a market centre where the produce of the hills could be exchanged for that of the plain, and where, in the last century, the mining population of the Llynfi, Garw and Ogwr valleys gathered to purchase their weekly pro visions. The town has a tannery and brewery, and there are brickworks and stone quarries, and much lime was burnt in the neighbourhood. The growth of Maesteg limited Bridgend for a time, but the recent growth of road traffic is tending to help Bridgend once more.
There was no civil parish of Bridgend previous to 1905, when one was formed out of the parishes of Newcastle and Coity. The town is now in the Ogmore parliamentary division. It has a station on the G.W.R. main line as well as connections with Barry, and the Llynfi and Garw valleys.