Papers of Len Truran: Mebyon Kernow

The majority of the papers in this collection comprise records of Mebyon Kernow (MK), some pre-dating Truran’s involvement with the organisation. The main series of administrative files reflects both Mebyon Kernow’s internal administration and their outward-facing campaigns from the mid 1960s through to 1980. These include campaign material for Mebyon Kernow's electoral campaigns and for their activities as a pressure group running cultural and political campaigns to protect and promote Cornish identities, culture, language, landscape and political autonomy. The files also contain membership records, fundraising through sales of promotional items (serviettes, neckties, pin badges) and publications, minutes of meetings, and files of press cuttings and other material about their own campaigns and about the work of other Cornish nationalist organisations.
The collection also includes a small set of papers relating to Truran’s involvement in the Cornish Assembly formed in 1979 as a cross-party umbrella organisation for Cornish nationalist political interests, and to the Social Democratic Party which Truran joined in 1980 on his departure from Mebyon Kernow. Truran’s publishing company Dyllansow Truran is represented in a handful of book drafts by various authors about Cornish history, culture and language.
Some highlights in the collection include:

• Records relating to proposals for a postage stamp for Cornwall including drafts, mock ups, correspondence and news coverage.
• Overspill campaign posters, stickers, correspondence and press cuttings from Mebyon Kernow’s campaign against overspill (in-migration to Cornwall through Greater London Council proposals to solve problems of overcrowding in London by building new towns and adding new housing development to existing towns to house the overspill of population from London).
• Scrapbook compiled by Robert Dunstone, 1960-64, with press cuttings about Mebyon Kernow’s work, including campaigns against railway branch line closures and appeals for a University in Cornwall.
• Cowethas Flamank reports and correspondence that helped to shape MK’s policy and response to cultural pressures and issues.
• Administrative files that highlight the breadth and diversity of Mebyon Kernow’s campaign activities including economic issues such as mine closures, fishing quotas, tourism and second homes, cultural issues about the Cornish language, place names, the Cornish flag, the preservation of St Piran’s Oratory in Perranporth and other historic sites, and political issues including various campaigns to protect Cornwall’s territorial integrity for administrative and political government decision-making.
• Correspondence and publications that highlight links between Celtic nations and with the Cornish diaspora particularly in America and Africa.
• Relations with other nationalist organisations in Cornwall and further afield including the Cornish National Party, Cornish Nationalist Party, Cornish Stannary Parliament, Celtic League and smaller radical political groups.

Collection keywords:
Cornish nationalism, Cornish politics, Cornish language, environment, economy, devolution, tourism, migration, regional development, Celtic nations, culture, identity.

The largest part of the collection comprises administrative files dated from 1964-1980 as per Truran's system of management. The collection overall was found in no clear order and has been arranged by the archivist using a broadly function-based arrangement as follows:
A: Records of Mebyon Kernow. This comprises one original series of administrative files arranged by year, containing correspondence, press releases, membership records and campaign material. The remainder of the records relating to Mebyon Kernow have been arranged using a functional structure with individual items found loose assigned to categories determined by the archivist.
B: Records of other organisations that Truran was involved in, comprising his political involvement in the Cornish Assembly and Social Democratic Party, and papers relating to Truran’s publishing company, Dyllansow Truran.
C: Publications of various organisations found loose among the other papers which may have been acquired by Truran either in a personal capacity or as a representative of Mebyon Kernow.

A number of other Institute of Cornish Studies collections provide further materials relating to Cornish politics at this time.

- ICS6 Papers of Adrian Lee

- ICS10 The Institute of Cornish Studies Election Project

- ICS11 Papers of Mary Mann: Falmouth - Camborne Liberal Association

- ICS8 Papers of Royston Green

Open

Mebyon KernowMebyon Kernow (MK) was formed in 1951 with the aim of taking an active role in shaping public opinion about issues affecting Cornwall, promoting the Cornish language and the study of Cornish history, establishing acceptance of the Celtic nature of Cornwall and advocating for self-government. Mebyon Kernow functioned as a pressure group for cultural campaigns and took on an increasing political role, fielding candidates for local, Parliamentary and European elections.

Helena Charles was the first Chairman and under her leadership the work of Mebyon Kernow was marked by a concern for the undermining of Cornish culture and identity exacerbated through in-migration, and by tension between those members seeking a purely cultural agenda and those seeking a more political expression of nationalism. Charles resigned in 1956 after losing her seat at a District Council election, citing lack of support from Mebyon Kernow members compared to the winning Labour candidate. After her resignation Cecil Beer, a founding member of the cultural campaign group Tyr ha Tavas, was invited to chair Mebyon Kernow. Under his leadership, the organisation refocussed on cultural activism and grew slowly, gaining a wider appeal although membership numbers remained low.

By 1962, the group had 70 members and had opened the door to associate members (non-Cornish supporters). It had also begun to take a more active role in campaigning. Under Robert Dunstone?s leadership the group was characterised by ?patient, persistent and polite lobbying? on issues including transport, a Cornish university and industrial development. The mid-1960s saw Mebyon Kernow grow in numbers and visibility through prominent campaigning on overspill (Greater London Council?s plan to build new council housing in Cornwall and elsewhere to house Londoners), and through the election of Mebyon Kernow candidates to local District Councils and to Cornwall County Council. Colin Murley was Mebyon Kernow?s first candidate elected to Cornwall County Council in 1967, on an anti-overspill agenda. Mebyon Kernow members had stood for local elections as Independent councillors before then, but had not fielded any candidates as an organisation since Helena Charles in the early 1950s. Dual membership of Mebyon Kernow and other political parties was common during the 1960s and members included Liberal MPs Peter Bessell and John Pardoe, and Conservative MP David Mudd. As Mebyon Kernow became more political as an organisation this led to internal conflict. A formal pact between MK and the Liberal party was tabled in 1968 but rejected as Mebyon Kernow decided to field its own candidates for parliamentary elections.

Len Truran took over as Chairman from Robert Dunstone in 1968. His leadership marked a transition to a campaign style that focussed more on comparisons between Cornwall and England. The party still faced internal conflict between those with political aspirations particularly around devolution, and those wanting Mebyon Kernow to remain a pressure group focussed on Cornish culture and identity. Cowethas Flamank was formed in 1969-70, led by John Fleet and an enthusiastic group of ?Cornish exiles? associated with but separate from Mebyon Kernow. Also in 1969, a number of key actively political members split from Mebyon Kernow to form the Cornish National Party, hoping for a faster pace towards a nationalist political party; the two organisations had very similar objectives. By the mid-1970s after limited electoral success, many CNP members drifted back to Mebyon Kernow. A second split occurred in 1975 when James Whetter and others formed the Cornish Nationalist Party, again seeking a more active political role within Cornish nationalism.

Mebyon Kernow campaigns in the early 1970s included extensive protest against the formation of a Tamarside local authority bringing together parts of Cornwall with Plymouth, campaigns about PL and EX postcodes in Cornwall, sonic booms from Concorde flights, and fighting for Cornish interests in development plans led by the South West Economic Planning Council. Counter-urbanisation had led many to move to Cornwall from the south east of England, bringing rising house prices and the threat of cultural change and loss of Cornish identity. By the mid-1970s, Len Truran?s An Gof group of activists within Mebyon Kernow and an influx of new members led to wider publicity for Mebyon Kernow campaigns and more candidates contesting seats in elections. In 1976 MK voted to exclude members of other political parties, affirming the new direction of the organisation as a political party although it retained some of the activities of a pressure group, e.g. issuing birth certificates to Cornish nationals as part of a campaign for better maternity services in east Cornwall (DEACON et al, 2003 p.69). The party?s campaigns gained increasing visibility as they highlighted issues as varied as nuclear waste, unemployment and fishing rights. The party fielded candidates for Parliamentary Elections and for the European Parliamentary Elections in 1979. However, post-election internal tensions led to the resignation of a number of key members including the National Secretary, Len Truran who resigned in 1980 accusing the party of ?Trotskyism?.

Despite falling membership and divisions, Mebyon Kernow continued to campaign through the early 1980s particularly over high unemployment and mobilised a cross-party Cornish Anti-Nuclear Alliance (CANA) to lobby against a proposed nuclear power station site at Luxulyan. Local election successes in West Cornwall were not matched elsewhere and the focus shifted from fighting elections to pressure group activities on matters such as tourism, the poll tax, frequent ?Devonwall? campaigns against the merging of public bodies across Cornwall, Devon and the wider South-West, and the formation of another cross-party lobbying group Cornish Alternatives to the Structure Plan (CASP) in 1987, about proposed housing developments across Cornwall.

Chairs of Mebyon Kernow:Helena Charles, 1951 ? 1956Cecil Beer, 1957 ? 1960Robert Dunstone, 1960 ? 1968Len Truran, 1968 ? 1973Richard Jenkin, 1973 ? 1983Julyan Drew, 1983 ? 1985Pedyr Prior, 1985 ? 1986Loveday Carlyon, 1986 ? 1989Loveday Jenkin, 1990 ? 1997

• Publications:
• - Following 'An Gof': Leonard Truran, Cornish Activist and Publisher. Derek R. Williams. The Cornovia Press 2014
• - Mebyon Kernow & Cornish Nationalism. Bernard Deacon, Dick Cole and Garry Tregidga. Welsh Academic Press 2003
• - Gorseth Kernow The first 50 years. Den Toll (Hugh Miners) 1978. Gorseth Kernow.