Jeremy Faull, Cornwall County Councillor 1977-1985

Jeremy Faull was the party’s first-ever county councillor elected in 1977, representing a ward near Withiel, Bodmin, Cornwall. He won the seat, rather unexpectedly, when the retiring Conservative councillor decided to support him. Jeremy was one of a group of early ecological pioneers and friends – including Teddy Goldsmith and Peter Bunyard - who had bought land in the area. Jeremy held his seat on Cornwall County Council for the Ecology Party through until 1985.

He died in 2011 and you can read his Guardian Newspaper obituary here (original here)
 
Throughout the early years the South West was a core region for the Ecology Party. Caroline Lucas became the party's next (second) county councillor when she was elected in the 1980s for a ward in Oxford.
 
Teddy Goldsmith was editing the Ecologist magazine from his home in Cornwall, and I was living next door in a caravan at Peter Bunyard’s farm. Peter, helped by David, ran his farm without any mechanisation. We milked his herd of Jerseys and Guernseys  by hand and he ploughed his fields with horses.
 
In 1976 Teddy, Kathy his wife, David and Nik Hildyard (Teddy’s protégé and subsequent Ecologist editor) drove north in Teddy’s light blue Volkswagen Beetle to work on the party’s first-ever by-election campaign in Walsall North, providing the core of Jonathon Tyler’s campaign team. Jonathon lived in Birmingham and was chair of the National Executive Committee. I particularly remember two aspects of the campaign.
 
I was only 19 at the time and this was my first ‘on the ground’ election campaign. I remember being shocked when a Socialist Worker paper seller on the street showed me a revolver he had under his jacket, “in case there was trouble with the fascists”.

My highlight was probably the regular night time excursions Nik and I did to put posters (with Jonathon’s face on them) up on lamp posts around the constituency. I used to get up on his shoulders to do it. I those days that kind of flyposting was tolerated.
 
 Jeremy remained farming in Cornwall and working for the Citizens Advice Bureau for many years and up until shortly before his death was running the Wadebridge Bookshop.

Article contributed by David Taylor. May 2016.