The Green-History.uk project came about as a result of conversations between David Taylor and Roger C-O during spring 2016 at which time Roger was editing pages on the SW GP Regional website including some historical election and other information.
David had had an interest in Green Party history for many years, having joined the party in 1974. He organised activities for both the 21st and 40th anniversaries, and had written the original ‘Correct Chronology of the Founding of the Green Party’ in frustration at the many incorrect versions that were out there. He supplied Derek Wall with much information and a forward for his history of the party, ‘Weaving a Bower against Endless Night’.
Tony Whittaker, one of the original founders of the party, had recently died and David suggested that the obituary should have a place on the SW website since much of the founding activity had been in the SW - the Whittakers had moved to Devon shortly after launching PEOPLE, and Teddy Goldsmith and others had also de-camped to Cornwall.
This prompted Roger to start looking at the founding chronology - originally from a specific SW angle and building up a set of History pages on the SW site with David contributing much from his personal memories and archive.
It soon became apparent that there was a lot that had been forgotten, much mis-information in circulation, and a vast array of material out there. The whole debate about being a movement or a political party had strong modern day resonance, and the consequences of decisions taken 40 years ago seemed to be echoing down the years unknown to most modern greens.
Although the project started with a Green (or Ecology) Party focus, it was also clear that there was a much bigger story to tell about the whole growth and flowering of the wider green politics movement in the 1970's and 1980's, culminating in the 1989 Euro Election high-water mark and the transference of green ideas, often diluted to almost homeopathic levels, into the mainstream.
A few pages on the SouthWest regional GP website could hardly do justice to the wealth of material, and we strongly felt that the project needed to be independent of any particular organisation - there is no editorial control on the presentation of this site from GPEW or any other organisation. Hence this site was created and since 2017 we have been slowly building up the content as our own interests and resources permit.
A basic structure has been laid down, and some initial content generated - now as we enter 2018 we want to bring in more voices to the authoring and editing of content. If you are interested in contributing to this project then please do fill in the form at www.green-history.uk/join or simple drop us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - this hobby horse is plenty big enough for Uncle Tom Cobbley and All to ride...