Students at Wirral secondary Upton Hall create a stir in Cologne with Beatles-inspired nativity crib

Dec 19 2012 by Ben Turner, Birkenhead News

A WIRRAL school is feeling fab after making a Beatles-inspired crib that has proved a huge visitor attraction – in Germany.

Students from Wirral girls’ secondary Upton Hall School nativity creation has been so well received that Cologne town hall bosses want to extend its stay in the country.

The striking structure, which replaces the Three Wise Men by the Fab Four, is among exhibits being displayed until January as part of The Krippenweg – an international exhibition of Nativity cribs held annually in Cologne, Germany.

Working alongside internationally acclaimed Wirral ceramicist Emma Rodgers, eight A-level art and design students at the school leapt at the chance of creating the crib which had to not only celebrate the Christmas Story but the City of Liverpool to mark 60 years since the city was twinned with Cologne.

And the students did not disappoint after spending two months painstakingly completing their finished exhibit which has proved a massive draw ever since it went on The Antonitekirche (St Anthony’s Church) in the middle of Cologne’s main shopping area.

The creation includes Mary and Joseph travelling down Hope Street between the city's two cathedrals while the Beatles bear gold, frankincense and myrrh as a superlambanana looks on.

The school’s art and design technician Will Nichol has engraved Liverpool’s skyline onto perspex layers surrounding the crib which includes embroidery and even a clay impression of a Liver Bird.

And the crib, the first ever from Merseyside to feature in the international exhibition, has proved such a hit that the school has agreed to a request from Cologne’s wax lyrical council and church officials to allow it to be displayed in the city’s Town Hall next winter.

Delighted assistant headteacher Ann Spears who helped oversee the project said it would have been “too harsh” to decide which Beatle missed out on the Three Wise Men. She added: “It is lovely link and great our students are peace ambassadors. The response has been amazing.”