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                                                      February 7th
The St. Just Butter Protest (1920)
 

Although Cornwall is a beautiful county and has many very expensive homes there are, today, areas of deep poverty.  This has always been the case. 

After the armistice in 1918, with the return of surviving members of the forces to no work, poverty and no prospects, anger began to rise rapidly about the cost, and shortage, of milk, butter, corn, coal and bread.  It was said by Lloyd George that ‘We will make this country a fit place for heroes to live in’ but that this had not materialised more than a year after the Armistice was a cause of massive resentment. 

This culminated in the so called ‘Butter Protest’ of which the most famous occurred on this day in 1920 in St. Just specifically to protest about the price of butter but, in reality, also expressing great anger about the conditions in the area.  One factory that had been established was Bauer’s Sanatogen factory in Newlyn whose product was marketed as a ‘brain tonic’ and was renamed ‘Genatosan’.  The factory was a huge consumer of milk contributing to the shortage of milk and butter. 

Following a demonstration outside the factory, the marchers, mainly men, proceeded to Penzance where they obstructed the passage of a delivery of milk to the Sanatogen factory and a delegation of the protesters then met a group of farmers and local dignitaries. Those protesters who were employed rejected the offer of a wage increase since they believed, probably correctly, that this would only lead to an increase in the prices of shortage materials.

Within a week, an enquiry had been announced and the price of milk and butter was guaranteed.  This price was heavily subsidised in order to prevent any further disturbances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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