The successful Valeways Walking Festival last week featured the Barry Women’s Trail, devised to honour significant women across the town.

I  helped to guide a tour with Valeways Volunteer Coordinator  Rebecca Exley and Professor Dee Beddoe.  The tour included visits to the home of Annie Gwen Vaughan Jones- who was secretary of the Cardiff Suffrage Society over a century ago, and her daughter-  Gwyneth Valerie – a former Headmistress of Barry Girls Grammar School.

It was a wonderful sunny morning and we were joined by 25 walkers covering just one part of the Barry Women’s Trail. We spent time remembering significant Barry women, including Composer Grace Williams, first female Leader of the Vale Council Margaret Alexander, and Founder of the SAFE charity and human rights campaigner Lucy Dickenson, at the bench in her memory on the Knap.