HISTORIC stained glass windows part of an £11m conservation project will be on display to the public as part of Heritage Open Days Festival.

Conservators Monika Adamczak and Lydia Walter from York Glaziers Trust, Britain’s oldest and largest specialist stained glass conservation studio, hold a 600-year-old panel from one of York Minster’s windows.

The panel will be on show during tours of the studio on Friday, September 20 as part of the national Heritage Open Days festival. The work is part of an 11 year, £11m conservation and restoration project at York Minster.

Conservation manager Nick Teed said: "We are working on three windows at the moment in the clerestory – a second tier of stained glass windows in York Minster which has never been worked on before.

"We wanted to protect these windows from environmental damage and we have done a lot of work in collaboration with the Minster. They are fantastic early 15th Century windows depicting bishops and popes, and we found that in many cases, the coat of arms of those who had donated money towards them were included in the window. People used to donate to have them made, and now we need help with donations to conserve them."

York Minster is also hosting a Northern Lights installation on October 24 to 31, with proceeds supporting window conservation.