Commemorations of Iolo Morgannwg in Cowbridge have been reviewed in a Welsh Government report into public monuments, street and place names associated with the slave trade and British Empire.

The audit specified Iolo Morgannwg, whose real name was Edward Williams, as a figure to investigate because of his inheritance from his brother's sugar plantation, while acknowledging that Edwards campaigned against slavery.

The marble plaque commemorating Williams is located at Costa Coffee on Cowbridge High Street, the site where he once ran a grocery store.

The Welsh-medium primary school Ysgol Iolo Morganwg is also named after Williams.

Williams was a stonemason by trade but also a romantic poet, political radical and humanitarian.

He was a "fervent and active abolitionist though his brothers were plantation owners in Jamaica," reads the report.

"When his brother John died, Iolo hoped to inherit his estate in order to solve his own financial problems and undertake a unilateral emancipation.

"He eventually received a cash sum in 1815, by which time the slave trade had been abolished and it so happened that his brother's land was free of enslaved people, allowing him to pay off his debts with it in conscience."

In July 2020 the First Minister appointed a Task and Finish Group to audit public monuments, street and building names in Wales associated with the slave trade and the British Empire and also touching on the historical contributions to Welsh life of people of Black heritage.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: "The aim of the audit is to help inform a much wider consideration of how we deal with commemorations.

"Among other things, it is intended to help those responsible for managing specific commemorations such as the blue plaque in Cowbridge."

Read the full report here .