Autumn at the St Madoc Centre

Autumn brings with it a slight lull after our extremely hectic spring and summer seasons. This lull gives us an opportunity to catch up on our paperwork, maintenance and site management. We still have plenty of groups arriving and departing, but the majority will be creating their own programmes, rather than asking the St Madoc Staff to do so for them. We did still have some school groups on site requiring our trained staff to help them out with activities. In October we had 140 year 6 children from Llanrhidian, Penclawdd, Gowerton, Pen y Fro and Waunarlwydd Primary Schools on site. The aim of this visit was to build inter-school relationships before these year 6 pupils from each school join Gowerton Comprehensive in year 7 next year. The initial responses have been very favourable, and the coordinator of this visit is already talking about booking again for next year.

Our green building and sustainable living project, Sustain, is still progressing well. The continued help and input of all sorts of volunteers and staff alike have meant that progress on our outdoor classroom in the woods has come on very well and our aim to get the walls and seating done before the end of the year looks very much achievable. This would mean we would be able to make use of this new facility in the new year, ready for the start of our next busy school season in April.
This aim should see a boost in the near future, with St Madoc Staff having attended four different volunteer fairs at Colleges and Comprehensive Schools. We provided information about the various volunteering projects we have to pupils and students in the Welsh Baccalaureate scheme and those undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

For the first time the St Madoc Centre put on a full weekend of activities for a group of men in October. These men were from various different Welsh Churches, and had been brought together by Christian Vision for Men organisation. The weekend was labelled ‘Escape’ and encouraged those staying at the St Madoc Centre to escape the norm and challenge preconceptions. St Madoc Staff created a variety of different activities, based on this premise, from team building games to sporting activities, whilst attempting to ensure that our guests would not have experienced these games before. In the end around 45 men had a fantastic and eye-opening weekend, and CVM have already re-booked for next year!


Production of fruit and vegetables has slowed in our allotment due to the onset of colder weather. We did harvest many different kinds of veg in late summer/early autumn, things like corn, pumpkins and marrows. Some of this was kept to feed our ever-growing staff, but a lot went up to our honesty vegetable stall, which is quickly becoming a favourite place to shop for those staying at the local caravan site.
In August Llanmadoc (the local village) hosted its annual Village Show. This was the first show the St Madoc Centre has been able to enter, but we performed much better than we had anticipated, winning a total of 7 different awards, including best Cockerel (he was the only Cockerel entered, but we were pleased...) Planting and preparation for the coming spring is already under way, and wintergreens are being planted ready for harvesting early next year. We have also been busy apple, plum and blackberry picking to make various pickles. jams and sauces ready for adding to our veg stall.

Those readers that have visited the St Madoc centre previously will be glad to know that we have now had our cattle grid reinstated, which means you will no longer have to get out of your cars to open the gate! Work was completed in just over a day, with the minimum of fuss, for which we were very grateful. Hopefully those of you that have recently browsed our website will have noticed an array of changes. Our more technically able staff have been working hard recently to bring the website up to date and improve its ease of use. Please let us know if you think we have - or haven’t succeeded.

Upcoming Events:
The St Madoc Centre Carol Concert and Craft Fair: 4th of December.
Our annual Carol Concert is nearly upon us once again. There will be mulled wine and hot food available, as well as the crafts of local people and businesses to view. For more information please feel free to ring or email us, our details can be found overleaf.

 Booking your stay at the St Madoc Centre:
If you work in a school or any other youth group that may be interested in booking a stay at the St Madoc Centre, whether for a day or a full week (or anywhere in between) please contact us via email or by phone and we will be happy to provide you with more information. Further information is also available on-line or by post upon request.


The booking process has now been made more simple, just simply visit our website at www.stmadoc.co.uk/booking and follow our 5 easy steps.

Another Blog

Hi again!

There has been a longer gap between the last blog update and this one than I had intended. This has been due to a couple of different reasons, which I'll go into now...

The end of February saw us put on a saturday programme for a group of 20 or so church-going teenagers. The programme consisted of some orienteering (which is fast becoming a staple activity here, I suppose the variable landscape and the spectacular views makes orienteering here at St Madoc's even better than elsewhere?) in the morning and the 'St Madoc Challenge' in the afternoon. We like to award points for each task and activity, encouraging the teams to get more into each game or problem we set them, and this group, like many others, got quite competitive (I'm sure it's the leaders who're the worst!) - although, only with the best intentions I'm sure. The final result of the programme hung on the last bonus question of the day which was:

'How far have you walked today?'

Now, I know that each person will likely have walked different distances, but we can guestimate the average distance walked and go with that. The winning group guessed within 20 metres and won themselves (and their highly competitive leader) a large box of chocolates - to share with the rest of the groups, obviously!

Storming into March now, we had our first overnight programme of the year (there are plenty more to come) for a primary school bringing over 30 children, ranging from 7 to 10 years old. The programme was very successful, with all involved, including me, having a great time. The weather didn't help us particularly, although the rain did hold off for the majority of their stay, coming down only as the kids moved their bags onto the coach.

Each programme we do improves the next, we learn something from every one we experience, and we are getting better and better at tailoring our activities to better fit the target audience. The range of activities we offer, and the ways in which we can offer them are also always increasing, meaning that whenever a group visits us having stayed previously, our programme will be even better than before, as many groups have already experienced!

If you have tried to contact us in mid-March you may have had some problems. This is because we have finally moved our office out of the tiny 10'x10', non-insulated shed that we used to use, into a much larger, much warmer office, more suited to our increasing number of staff. This has meant we have lost the ability to answer emails or phone-calls occasionally, but all problems have now been sorted out, and we should be back to normal!

As time goes on, the closer we get to our peak period, with 2 and a half months of fully-booked school weeks, all having their programme run by the staff here at St Madoc's. I look forward to it, albeit with a certain degree of trepidation! That being said, if they are as much fun as the past two programme I've had the pleasure to be involved in we shall all have a brilliant summer!

Until next time!

Finally Finished!

Yep, you've guessed it, the bottom section of the building is now finished! Well, mostly.


As the builders promised the building was as finished as it could be on February the 12th, in fact, it was finished on the 11th - ahead of schedule! Giving us plenty of time to move just under 30 beds, mattresses, pillows, wooden boards and blankets down to the new dormitories. We managed, but moving that many metal beds by hand was hard work!

With the new rooms finished we now have 81, heated and en-suite, dormitory-style beds available, as opposed to the 53 we had previously. It also means we can manage having two groups on site at once far more easily, with each group having clearly sepparate sleeping accommodation, dining rooms and kitchens.

I mentioned that February would see the first St Madoc programme of the year so far in my last blog, and since then we've put on two programmes, one for a full day and one for a couple of hours. Both seemed to go down very well, with both of the groups of youth really enjoying themselves. Our orienteering course was tested on both occasions, and the set-up worked well, allowing the groups to wander our 76 acre site, savouring the sights, smells and sounds as planned.

To book your own stay at the St Madoc Centre, click here, be sure to mention in the 'Other info / comments' section if you would like the St Madoc Centre Staff to perform any section of your programme.



For more information on possible activities please click here.

February at the St Madoc Centre

So february is here, bringing with it a fairly slow month as far as visiting groups go. You'd have thought that meant we'd have plenty of time to get those little things done that get looked over during busier periods... unfortunately it seems to be the opposite. With our increased bookings from schools over the spring and summer, and the Sustain project needing more and more time spent on planning it's turned out that getting these sorted is taking up a whole lot of time. It's good to be busy though, we're getting alot done, and alot sorted out, so progress is being made.

We have received the funding from the Morris and Hilda Lang Trust to finish the remaining sections of the ground floor dormitories, so the builders, carpenters, plumbers, floor-fitters, electricians and decorators have been toing and froing at all hours. Work is ahead of schedule at the moment, and is scheduled to be finished, officially, on the 12th of february. Queue more work for our staff moving beds around and cleaning the new dormitories ready for the schools and other youth groups.

All in all february seems like it will be an exciting month, the building will finally be finished, and our staff will put on a programme for the first school of the year. I, for one, am looking forward to it!

The First of Many.

This is the first of many, hopefully, blog entries that I shall be writing for the St Madoc Centre.

The St Madoc Centre was created in 1945 when Mr and Mrs Burr gave 76 acres of land located on the Gower Peninsula to a board of trustees and charged them with creating a youth camp. The camp was designed as a place for 'exploration and growth', as well as a place of healing for those children that had been displaced by the war. Facilities were rudimentary to begin with, with outside toilets and old army barracks as dormitories.

Not alot changed until 2005, when the St Madoc Centre under-went a massive development programme, with brand new facilities being constructed, funded largely by charitable donations. Our rooms are now all en-suite with under-floor heating, so the people that stay on site no longer have to worry about herding sheep to get to the toilets!

Alot has changed at the St Madoc Centre, but our aims remain the same. We provide accommodation and activities for disadvantaged children to come and escape from whatever troubles they might have at other places in their lives. We also provide a place for groups from churches, schools and youth groups to stay and enjoy themselves.