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Historian Professor Jean Seaton uncovers the story of industrial conflict in Devon during World War One.

She visits the paper mill at Stoke Canon in East Devon. By 1915, several skilled men had gone to fight in the war and production was down. The owners wanted to pay the remaining workers by results but they refused to accept this. Instead, they asked for an increase in their basic pay.

The paper mill owner Frederick Tremlett applied for eviction notices against the dissenting workers who lived in houses which he owned next to the factory.

The case was heard by magistrates at Exeter Castle and the eviction orders were granted against the strikers.

As a result 50 men, women and children were forced to find alternative accommodation by camping in tents provided by the papermakers’ union.

Archive is copyright and courtesy of British Pathe and the Imperial War Museum.