THE horror of a Bedworth coal-mining family’s life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been chronicled.
Bedworth author Geraldine Farren tells the story of her mother, Mercia Emma Harrison, and her family, who eventually took over the Griff Clara colliery, in the book In the Shadow of the Wheel.
But Mercia’s story is riddled with drama and misery.
Geraldine said: “This story is based on fact. It is an account of the family’s constant struggle for survival against all the odds.
“Going briefly back in time to the beginnings of the Harrison family, it tells of the hardships Mercia and her parents endured including working for unscrupulous mining bosses whose only interest was in retrieving coal under appalling conditions.”
Born in 1912, Mercia was the last of 12 children, born to her mother Emma and her father Frank Harrison, the underground manager of the colliery.
Her story spans three generations in lives that were overshadowed by punishing work regimes, pit accidents, child mortality and poverty.
Tragedy dogged Mercia’s family too, leaving no-one unscathed.
She tells of how the antics of her siblings, and those of the poor, but colourful characters also living in the small mining community of Bermuda village, where she had spent her childhood, had so enriched her life.
To research the book, Geraldine spent months talking to Mercia and researching her own family history. But now she said she is glad that her project has finally come through and she will be able to pass on the story.
n In the Shadow of the Wheel is available now through www.authorsonline.co.uk and www.amazon.com.
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