More than 80 years old and appearing like it's been through the wars, a seat in the garage of Tilehurst-resident Laura Stopforth is proving difficult to even give away. 

But for Laura, the seat is a family heirloom that can bring a tear to her eye and cause a lump in her throat. 

"I have had emotional moments reflecting on its significance," she said. 

That's because the seat has been through an incredible journey from the fields of northern France to suburban Berkshire - and it remains a physical link to the day that Laura's father was nearly killed in northern France. 

Laura's father Jack Bartley was a 19-year-old gunner and wireless operator onboard a Blenheim bomber that was shot down near the France-Belgium border, eighty years ago during the Second World War. 

During the bombing raid on a column of German tanks, Jack suffered flak gun shrapnel wounds to his legs and his back and watched as planes carrying friends were shot out of the sky. His own plane was forced to crash land, with Jack and his two crew members lucky to survive, subsequently being rescued by a local French farmhand named Gilbert Taton. 

Returning to the site near L'Échelle in 2005, Jack met with a local historian who reunited the former airman with Gilbert - who had a surprise instore. 

Laura said: "He said, 'I have got something you may be interested in.' And it was the pilot's seat from the plane.

"Dad donated it to a local museum. 

"By complete coincidence this year I was in France and (the local historian) emailed me to say that the museum was closing down. I called the museum to see if we could pop in and see the seat - and they said, 'well, you can have it!'

"Fortunately we weren't in a plane with a 20kg luggage limit. We drove and strapped the seat to the top of van." 

Now Laura is looking for a museum or heritage site with links to the RAF or aviation to provide a suitable home for the historic item. 

The 65-year-old said: "I have contacted IWM Duxford but they have said they are not taking physical artifacts at the moment. 

"The RAF museum in London I'm waiting to hear back from.

"It has to go somewhere or the risk is that if we don't find somewhere, when me and my brother have passed, it will get lost."

Laura hopes the item can be used to educate future generations about the sacrifices made by men like her father, who died in 2014, and his two crewmembers, who were killed in their first mission returning to duty after being rescued. 

Laura said that she had no idea about the ordeal her father had endured until he started sharing war stories when he was in his seventies. 

She said: "I remember him as quiet short tempered and difficult to get on with. I never knew anything about this until he was in seventies. Hearing what he went through made me realise so much about who he was. 

"Dad was typical of his generation in that I think he was quite emotional about what he had been through  - but he was always quiet factual talking about it.

"In 2005 he visited the crash site and he sang something like Somewhere Over The Rainbow. There was a French crowd there and they were in tears."