Cornwall's most significant strike marked by centenary events.

The centenary of Cornwall's most significant industrial dispute is next month being marked with a special launch event near St Austell.

The 1913 China Clay strike involved some 5,000 workers and their families against pit owners over demands for a pay rise and union rights. The ten-week dispute made national news when police brought in from South Wales baton-charged a crowd of strikers in Bugle.

The strikers went back to work without a deal, but within weeks the largest clay firm came to an agreement giving the workers all they had fought for. The other employers soon followed.

A series of events has been planned to mark the centenary, the first of which takes place at the Wheal Martyn Museum in Carthew between 4.30 and 6.30pm on April 25th.

Nigel Costley, regional secretary of the South West TUC, said: " This was Cornwall's biggest strike, involving the whole community. Employers took a hard line to stop workers organising and joining a union, but it backfired, energising the labour movement in the county and setting in train 100 years of good employment relations.

"It's a fascinating story and one that deserves telling all over Cornwall as we celebrate the centenary of the principled stance taken by Cornish workers in the face of determined employers."

Speakers from the China Clay History Society, Wheal Martyn Museum, Unite the union and Imerys will tell the story of the dispute that convulsed Cornwall. Nigel Costley has drawn together the details of the story in a new book, The 1913 China Clay Strike, to be launched at the event on April 25th, where he will be joined by the Imerys Mid-Cornwall Choir and folk singer Richard Trethewey.

An exhibition telling the story of the strike will be on display at Wheal Martyn throughout the summer. Other events scheduled for the year include storytelling sessions, the screening of the film about the strike, Stocker's Copper, and talks about the dispute.