One of the oldest stained-glass windows in the country is to be removed and taken down for restoration work. The 600-year-old stained-glass window at York Minster will undergo the important reworking thanks to a £390,000 lottery grant.

|PIC1|The 'Great East Window' was created between 1405 and 1408 by the master glazier John Thornton. After many years of service, however, it is now said to be buckling and has been described as being in "real danger", according to the Minster Dean.

The window will now be removed and prepared for safe storage while the stonework around it is first repaired and strengthened.

Experts will then be brought in from the York Glazier Trust - who received the lottery funding - to conserve the stained-glass.

The entire process will see the Trust recruit two new apprentices who will hold the hope to inheriting the vital skills needed to work on such delicate glass-work.

The Dean of York, The Very Rev Keith Jones, said: "This wonderful award doesn't only mark the exceptional beauty and importance of the Minster's great east window.

"It also recognises the coming together of excellent scholarly research, the high technical skills on site here, and our wish to show this treasure to everyone," according to the BBC.

The Dean said the importance of the Great East Window was on a par with the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome.

The work to take place on the window is part of a wider £30m project to restore the east end of the Minster over a 10-year period.

Plans currently include converting the medieval Bedern Chapel from its current use as a storeroom to allow glaziers to use it as a workshop, which will then be made accessible to the public.