HISTORIC stained glass windows, which have had pride of place in a church for decades, have been revamped.

The windows at St John's Church, in Hanley, have been given a facelift and fitted to light boxes inside the church.

The stained glass will now serve as a focal point when the building is transformed into a restaurant.

Plans submitted by developer Church Converts were given the go ahead in 2010, and will see the Grade-II listed building, which has stood empty since 1986, brought back to life.

And the company has decided to retain the original features of the church, in Town Road, as part of the project.

Two of the three original stained glass windows at the front of the church have now been replaced with clear glass, and have been hung on the rear wall of the building.

The light boxes will be switched on after dark to allow visitors to admire the artistry.

The rest of the stained glass windows on the church walls are to remain.

Architect Derek Latham, of Church Converts, said: "What we wanted to do was to open up the front of the building with plain glass windows so that people can see inside.

"Working on the theory that most people visit restaurants at night, we wanted to make the most of the light to uplift the room."

Derek added: "We can't really appreciate the stained glass windows as they are at night, so we decided to mount them on to light boxes so they can be preserved inside the building."

The church room will be spilt up into a kitchen, restaurant and bar area, while a small room at the bottom of the building's church tower will become a staff room.

Mr Latham added: "The majority of the development work is completed at the site and we are hoping to launch our market campaign nationwide in the near future."

Site agent Hayden Hill, from the Staffordshire Restoration and Conservation group, who is carrying out the work, said: "The whole idea of taking out the windows was to create a lot more natural light for the building, which is quite dark.

"But it was never the idea to get rid of the windows, so we sent them off to be restored and tidied up a little bit.

"Some parts of the glass was quite bad and some of the existing glass needed to be repaired."

Mr Hill added: "We have been working on the building for almost 12 months and there is still a lot of work to do.

"The plans have changed quite significantly since we first started working on the project, but we believe it is set to be put on the market soon."

A friends group formed to save the 10 church bells which were kept at St John's Church since 1790 launched a campaign to raise £54,000 to restore them last year, and more than £10,000 has been raised so far.