Two years ago, there were no statues of real women anywhere in Wales. As of Saturday, June 10, there are now three. The extraordinary poet, preacher, journalist, campaigner and teacher Sarah Jane Rees, better known by her bardic name Cranogwen, was unveiled in her home village of Llangrannog.
Cranogwen, the first women to win a poetry award in the National Eisteddfod of Wales, joins late Cardiff headteacher Betty Campbell and writer, dramatist and evolutionary theorist Elaine Morgan, in having been honoured with a statue thanks to the Monumental Welsh Women campaign.
The ceremony took took place at the Urdd Centre - Gwersyll yr Urdd, Llangrannog, Ceredigion, where Cranogwen was born in 1839. To honour Cranogwen being the first woman to win an award for poetry at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Professor Mererid Hopwood - the first woman to win a Chair at the National Eisteddfod - guided the ceremony. Local artists and school children also took part in the event.
