An explosive period in Cornish industrial history will be celebrated next year with a series of events to mark the centenary of the great clay strike.
Plans are already under way to commemorate those who took part in the dispute which rocked the clay villages around St Austell.
A group of trade unionists, historians and residents held a meeting at Wheal Martyn to discuss ways to mark the event, which saw some 5,000 quarry workers protesting for a pay rise from July to October 1913.
The dispute had been brewing for a long time, taking a decisive turn when the china clay firm at Carne Stents at Trewoon went back on a promise to pay wages every fortnight instead of every month.
As the strike dragged on, the miners ran out of money and returned to work amid an atmosphere of increasing tension and violence.
Nigel Costley, regional secretary of the South West TUC, said: "Despite the defeat, the strike helped bolster trade unionism in Cornwall. With nowhere big enough to meet, the union built local halls. One of the strike leaders, Joe Harris, became a popular Labour leader and union membership grew. And shortly afterwards there was a new three-year pay deal that actually gave more than the 25 shillings claimed in the strike."
The dispute was the subject of Stocker's Copper, a television Play For Today production screened in 1972. Widely regarded as a sympathetic portrayal of the events, it focuses on the relationship between a clay striker and one of the Welsh policemen brought in to break the strike.
"We're hoping to work with local schools, unions, employers and councils to tell the story of the strike," said Mr Costley. "There must be people who heard stories from grandparents about the impact of the dispute. It was an event that rocked the whole community and had profound effects in Cornwall. We're also looking at the possibility of publishing a book, so if anyone has any recollections of the strike through parents and grandparents, we'd love to hear them."
Nigel Costley can be contacted on 07887 797 153 or ncostley@tuc.org.uk
Meanwhile, Cornwall's quarrying industry is the subject of an exhibition currently on display at Liskeard & District Museum.
Men who blasted and cut the stone that went to create some of the region's finest buildings are being honoured in the month-long exhibition.
Quarry Voices, which has been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, looks at the social history of the men who spent their lives taking stone from Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor.
Over the past 12 months the Peninsula Quarry Industry Social History Trust, working in partnership with Plymouth City Council, Cornwall Council, Plymouth University and Geevor Tin Mine Museum, has been recording the memories of people connected to the region's quarries.
A team of 21 project volunteers have also been central to the project's success, helping to record and transcribe more than 50 oral histories with participants. The recordings will be used to create an archive for future generations which will be available to the public from the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office from later this year.
Project officer, Dr Kayleigh Milden, said: "Take a walk across the rugged terrain of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, or the varied geological coastline of our peninsula, and you won't travel far before passing an abandoned quarry. Not so long ago these now silent places were bustling with the noise of an industry which has left a significant legacy on our landscape and architecture.
"Devon limestone, Cornish and Dartmoor granite is found in an array of regional and national landmarks, from Plymouth Breakwater and Exeter Cathedral to the Houses of Parliament and Nelson's Column.
"Our volunteers and interviewees have been so generous in sharing their time and knowledge with the project. It's very rewarding to see the culmination of everybody's hard work in our exhibition."
