Celebrating Cranogwen, a woman ahead of her time
AS MADONNA will tell you, to be known by a single name is the ultimate marker of celebrity status. In 19th-century Wales that kind of mononymous kudos went to Cranogwen.
This multi-talented superwoman – who was born in Llangrannog in 1839 and died in Cilfynydd in 1916 – may have been christened Sarah Jane Rees but it was her bardic name that stuck.
In her own time, this master mariner, poet, teacher, preacher, journalist and campaigner was lauded across Wales. In our time, her remarkable story has been cherished by historians and her local community but has not attracted the mainstream attention it deserves.
But that is set to change with the news this week that Cranogwen will be celebrated with a statue in her birthplace, while her definitive biography – by Professor Jane Aaron – will be released next year.
I first came across Cranogwen’s fabulous story when making a history programme with Jane 20 years ago and remember thinking at the time she warranted a Hollywood movie rather than our 15-minute chat on radio. Cranogwen defied all the suffocating restrictions of Victorian womanhood to enjoy a groundbreaking career rich in experiences, achievement and adventure.
This applied to her private as well as her public life. Encouraging other women to realise their personal potential rather than be reined into marriage, motherhood and domestic servitude, she led by example with her same-sex relationship with another woman of Llangrannog, Jane Thomas. In the words of LGBT+ historian Norena Shopland, Cranogwen “simply lived with her partner and got on with life”.
Poised and resplendent in her crinoline, we get a sense of Cranogwen’s strength of character in her contemporary photographs. More recently, a wonderful portrait by Ceredigion artist Meinir Mathias captures her spirit in a powerful pose against her native coastline.
Wales’ leading feminist historian, Professor Deirdre Beddoe, meanwhile, paints an evocative picture in words:
“A tall, dark, striking woman, strong-willed and supremely confident, but possessed of a delightful sense of humour, Cranogwen was, without doubt, the most outstanding Welsh woman of the 19th century.”
Her first claim to fame was as a master mariner. From the time she was a little girl in Llangrannog, Cranogwen was determined to live a less conventional life. Her parents wanted her to be a dressmaker but she persuaded her sea captain father to take her on board ship.
For two years she worked as a sailor on cargo ships between Wales, England and occasionally France before returning to London and Liverpool to further her nautical education.
She had demonstrated her leadership qualities at sea by famously overruling her father during a storm off Strumble Head. John Rees wanted to bring the vessel closer to shore but Sarah argued they should stay further out to avoid being dashed on the rocks. DG Jones described the incident in his 1932 biography Cofiant Cranogwen: “A storm rose between the two of them; at last she stamped her foot with force on the deck, she challenged the experience and authority of her father, and forced him to bend to her judgement.” It was a decision that almost certainly saved their lives.
She gained her master mariner’s certificate, a qualification that allowed her to command a ship in any part of the world. Back home in Llangrannog – overcoming opposition to the appointment of a woman – she became a head teacher at 21, educating the children of the village, and also taught navigation and seamanship to local young men.
Many men who would later go on to sail and captain ships across the world’s oceans were trained by Sarah Jane Rees at this small school on the coast of Ceredigion.
In 1865 her writing abilities turned her into an instant Welsh celebrity as she became the first woman to win a poetry prize at the National Eisteddfod – beating the major male Welsh poets of the day, Islwyn and Ceiriog.
This was a seismic success in 19thcentury Wales. The significance of this achievement and the publicity it brought her can’t be overstated. Neither can the deliciously controversial nature of her subject matter.
Writing under the name of Cranogwen, her winning poem, Y Fodrwy Briodasal – The Wedding Ring – was a moving satire on the married woman’s destiny, which included the spectre of domestic abuse, and used the wedding ring as a recurring symbol.
She went on to be one of the most popular poets in Wales, winning more eisteddfod prizes and exploring themes from Welsh patriotism to shipwrecks. Her first collection of around 40 poems was published in 1870. DG Jones describes how she
was greeted as “almost a supernatural being” by starstruck village poets.
In 1879 she added journalism to her literary skillset. She became the first woman to edit a Welsh-language women’s magazine – Y Frythones, a role she relished for 13 years. Packed with stories, poems and features, it campaigned for girls’ education, empowered working-class women and even had a problem page.
Here, Cranogwen answered readers’ queries with a belief in equality that would have been radical at the time. When correspondents asked about women becoming preachers, she responded: “Gender difference is nothing in the world.”
As an editor, Cranogwen also encouraged the talents of other women. Several of the female writers she gave a platform to in Y Frythones went on to successful literary careers.
Cranogwen was brilliant with the spoken as well as the written word. At a time when public speaking by women was frowned upon, she embarked on a career as a lecturer, Temperance campaigner and preacher.
A contemporary account of a talk she gave in Aberaeron on “The Young and the Culture of the Mind” describes her compelling style: “The way in which she handled the subject in all its details, and the spirit which she seemed evidently to throw into her discourse, made the deepest impression upon the hearers. Indeed, the lecture throughout was characterised by a great originality of thought, beauty of imagery, and force of expression, such indeed as has seldom been our lot to listen to. Towards the latter part she displayed such a burst of eloquence as to carry all before her, and so win universal applause from the audience.”
Cranogwen’s audiences also appreciated her generosity in frequently donating her fee to a local charitable cause. They didn’t mind her bringing her small dog along either. She did, however, face considerable opposition from male preachers when she took to the pulpit. But it didn’t stop her expanding her speaking career, initially across Wales – she found a warm welcome in the industrial valleys of the Rhondda – and then across the Atlantic.
Cranogwen travelled throughout America twice, visiting Welsh-speaking communities and witnessing the heady expansion of Gold Rush San Francisco. She embarked on her first lengthy – and lucrative – lecturing and preaching tour in 1869 at the age of 30, just four years after the end of the American Civil War and with the first transcontinental railroad barely completed. A daring solo journey for a single female at the time.
She brought the same fearlessness to tackling the impact of alcohol on family life. Temperance was an important issue for Cranogwen. She saw the social context of alcohol abuse in much the same way we would view the dangers of drug addiction today.
In 1901 she founded Undeb Dirwestol Merched y De (South Wales Women’s Temperance Union). By the time of her death in 1916 there were 140 branches throughout south Wales.
One of her most progressive ideas was a refuge for young women. And while she didn’t live to see this dream of a house for homeless girls realised, the shelter Llety Cranogwen was opened in her memory in Tonypandy in 1922.
Last summer I visited Cranogwen’s grave in Llangrannog. Part of the Welsh inscription translates as:
She stood lone among the nation’s daughters and wives in genius and ability.
She was pure in character.
It was a pilgrimage of sorts to the only tangible reminder of this amazing Welsh woman. But now her legacy will be saved for future generations with the statue she deserves, and the scholarship of Jane Aaron will serve her brilliantly in the forthcoming biography.
But come on BBC, Netflix, Amazon et al… from the sailor girl to a globe-trotting feminist, poet, journalist, campaigner and queer pioneer – surely there’s scope for Cranogwen the Movie?