This Christmas crib which survived the bombing of Liverpool by the Luftwaffe 80 years ago has an amazing story to tell.
It has been in the family of former ECHO reporter Claire Breithaupt ever since it was first bought by her grandad, Wilfred Blundell, as a Christmas gift for his pregnant wife Maggie, who was a devout Catholic.
Wilfred, from Maghull, who worked as a tool maker at the Air Ministry, found the little statue of baby Jesus in a small religious shop in Whitechapel but couldn't afford to buy it until pay day. So he paid a deposit, intending to return later.
But the premises was amongst the buildings to be hit by the full force of the Luftwaffe a few days later, in what become known as the Christmas Blitz of December 20, 1940.
All the statues and memorabilia in the Catholic 'respository' - of which there were several dotted around the city - were destroyed.
On Christmas Eve, Wilfred returned to find the shop owners, an elderly couple, round the back of their bombed shop. They recognised him as the man who had put down sixpence on the crib, intending to return and pay the full amount for the set when he'd been paid.
And they instantly said, 'You paid sixpence on this crib - everything else has been smashed', and gave it to him.
The crib was not the only miraculous escape from these dark times. Earlier, Wilfred had found his elderly in-laws, Teresa and James Bannon, alive in the cellar of their bombed home in Scotland Road after they had been presumed dead.
Like many bombed out people, the Bannons were forced to take shelter with family and came to live with Wilfred and Maggie.
But times were hard and they played host to a steady stream of desperate bombed out people, sometimes with nothing but the clothes they stood up in or dragging makeshift mattresses, begging for a night’s shelter.
Mum-of-two Claire, 46, from Ormskirk said: "The crib survived through the devastation of the Blitz in Liverpool which wreaked havoc on so many people.
"My ancestors, the Bannons were a prime example - they were to lose not only house and home but their youngest grandson, RAF flight lieutenant James Bannon (jnr) who died in bomber command over Berlin in 1943.
"When I think back to what they must have gone through, I see the crib as a symbol of the strength, hope and incredible resilience of Liverpudlians through the most unimaginable and darkest of times."
The crib is still seen by the family as having miraculous powers. When Claire's young nephew was very ill a few years ago, her sister asked for the crib to be sent from Ormskirk to Dublin to help in some way with his recovery.
Claire added: "Although the crib survived the Blitz then ended up in Maghull, and then Ormskirk in the 20th century, it has ended up back in Ireland, where the Bannons were from so in a way it's now back in its spiritual home."
