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China Clay Country Park - The 1913 Strike
Trade unions have never been strong in Cornwall. But in the years before World War 1, a violent strike was held near St Austell. In 1911 the Workers’ Union (now the TGWU) was started. They wanted: - an eight hour day
- to be paid once a fortnight, not a month
- one hour a day for lunch
- five shillings more a week
Most of the companies said "NO". In July 1913 the strike began. It was led by Howards Vincent and Matt Giles. Some men who carried on working were beaten up by their fellow workers. Equipment was smashed. Strikers went from pit to pit saying, "a man who goes back to work is a dirty scab". At Nanpean, a can of dymanite was exploded on the window sill of a house owned by a shift boss. At Wheal Hope the clothes and tools of non-strikers were damaged.
The Deputy Chief Constable met 2,000 strikers at Bugle in August. He told them, "I don’t want you to get in to trouble". They marched on an engine house in Karslake, but the 200 strong police reached there before them. The Deputy Chief Constable warned them again, and the strikers turned around and walked back singing hymns. One hundred Welsh police from Glamorgan were brought in. They were specially chosen for their size and were trained to break up strikes. As the strikers were running out of money, they sold lots of their family treasures - bicycles, pianos, pots and pans. |  |
In September, some Bristol policemen charged a group of 50 strikers and beat them with truncheons. Near Bugle, one of the Welsh police tried to move on one of the women pickets. She fell and the crowd rushed at the police. There was a battle and one man who saw it said, "The police at once had their batons out and were striking left and right. Man after man went down crying with pain ...". In September, Howard Vincent shot PC William Collett of Loswithiel in the leg. This shocked the strikers who were already thinking about ending the strike. They realised that they had lost. Since then the china clay industry has suffered very few strikes. Clay Workers Strike – Timeline30 Jan 1912 | Meeting of clay workjers in the Public Rooms, St Austell, organised by officials of the Workers Union | 11 July 1912 | Clay workers asked companies for wage rises, fortnightlpay, 8 hour day | 10 June 1913 | Employers were sent a demand for a minimum wage of 25s a week or face a strike | | A series of meetings were held by the Workers’ Union while they waited for the employers to announce their decision | 21 Jul 1913 | Strike started when 35 men stopped work at Carne Stents Pit (near Trewoon) | 1 Aug 1913 | Reported that most clay workers were out on strike | 2 Aug 1913 | Procession led through the streets of St Autell by the Rev. H Booth-Covventry and Matt Giles (a union official) | 12 Aug 1913 | A can of dynamite was exploded in Nanpean causing damages to the house of a non striking clay worker | 13 Aug 1913 | The Chief Constable warned the strike leaders that he could easily bring in extra police if strikers broke the law | 28 Aug 1913 | 100 Glamorgan pollice, 60 from Bristol and 30 from Devon arrived in St Austell | 31 Aug 1913 | All the works were picketed because it was expected that some would be re-opened on the next day | 1 Sep 1913 | Clashes between strikers and police at Bilberry, near Bugle. The Glamorgan police broke up the crowed by using their batons | 6 Sep 1913 | An independent fund to help strikers families was started in St Austell | 22 Sep 1913 | A number of works were re-opened. In the evening a crowd attacked Halviggan enging house and Howard Vincent (a striker) shot PC Collett (a local policeman) in the thigh | 4 Oct 1913 | The emplpyers decided to re-open all the pits and said that those men who did not re-apply for their jobs in three days would not be re-emplpyed | 5 Oct 1913 | A conference of strikers was held in the Public Rooms (now Courts Furniture shop) and it was decided to accept the adice of the Strike Committee and to return to work |
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