PEOPLE have a chance today to see a newly restored medieval stained glass window at a York church when it opens as part of the York Residents' Festival.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting a project to restore some of the oldest medieval stained-glass windows in the UK at All Saints Church in North Street.

The unique St James Window is the ninth such window to return to the church after restoration.

The church will be open from 10am to 4pm today, with tours and family activities.

The ongoing National Lottery Heritage Fund supported project to restore some of the oldest Medieval stained-glass windows in the UK continues at All Saints North Street, in York.

David Titchener, Chair of The Friends of All Saints, said the return of the St James Window marked 'another great milestone' in the successful restoration project.

“All Saints contains more medieval glass than almost any other parish church in England and we are so thankful for the careful craftsmanship of the team at Barley Studios for taking such care in restoring them to their original magnificence," he said.

The window was created in 1410, with the left light depicting St James the apostle, dressed as a pilgrim on his way to the Santiago shrine at Compostela.

The centre light shows Our Lady, crowned and holding her child, while the right light depicts a kneeling archbishop saying Mass. Above him Christ appears, accompanied by four angels.

Dr Andrew Horsman, former Priest in Charge at All Saints, said: “It is delightful to have the St. James Window back here at All Saints.

"The central image on the right-hand side, showing St Denys the martyr-archbishop of Paris saying Mass, is one of the most beautiful not only in All Saints but in the entire surviving corpus of medieval English stained glass. 

"The whole composition in white, gold and deep blue is surpassingly beautiful.

“Uniquely, the window has a fragmentary inscription now known to be part of an indulgence - a ritual undertaken to reduce the penalty for sin. This is the only surviving indulgence in a stained glass window in England.”

The final window to be restored, the Nine Orders of Angels, will be returning in the spring.

The parish church, dating primarily back to the 14th and 15th century, stands on a site that has been hallowed for worship since Anglo-Saxon times, and the medieval glass is recognised as among the most important collections in the British Isles.

The church is open daily for visitors from 10 am, with a weekly Sunday service at 5.30 pm, as well as offering the opportunity for private hire events.

* For further details of York Residents' Festival, go to https://www.visityork.org/residents-festival/attractions