A memorial to two baby brothers which had been destroyed by vandals is being restored to its former glory.

Yobs smashed ten stained glass windows after going on the rampage at St Peter's Church in Birstall, last summer.

The damage included a memorial tribute dating back to the mid 1800s for two brothers who died at the age of five and eight months respectively.

Their names had been etched into the glass but the pane was shattered by hooligans who climbed onto scaffolding and kicked in the windows.

The church is having the windows restored but glass artist David Morris, who is carrying out the work, had no way of knowing what was written in the panel because it had completely shattered.

However he has been able to return the damaged glass to its original state after discovering that it contained a tribute to two brothers.

Mr Morris made the discovery by complete co-incidence when he was chatting to a fellow glass artist who had written a booklet about the windows at St Peter's Church, in Birstall which contained information about the tribute.

The church window is in three sections and vandals had kicked in the bottom panel which contained a commemoration for the brothers who had died 14 years apart.

It is one of ten from the church which is being restored by Design Glass in Wyke.

Mr Morris, who is one of the firm's director's said: "The plaque which had been fired into the glass reads: 'William Booth born November 26, 1825, died March 25, 1826 and then Ioseph Sigston-Booth born February 17, 1840 died October 1840.' So they were five and eight months old when they died.

"A lot of the windows are commemorating worthy people or mill owners of the time but this was particularly sad because it was two kids."

"Their parents must have been important people because there is another window in the church in memory of two of their other children."

Mr Morris has been able to restore the window by piecing together fragments of shattered glass to make a new part of the window.

"The window will be about 90 per cent of the original glass and ten per cent of new glass which we are making. Doing this has made me feel like I have a link with the past. You realise how brilliant life is now and how lucky we are with all of the modern medical facilities because these people had four children and none of them reached adulthood.

"I do feel some satisfaction because I have played a small part in keeping their memory alive."

There has been a church on the site of St Peter's in Birstall since 1120 and the damaged windows pre-date the existing church building which was rebuilt between 1865 and 1870.

The vandalism was carried out when the church was having window guards installed. It meant extra costs for the church which was already carrying out a £300,000 of restoration.

St Peter's Vicar, the Reverend Paul Knight said: "After the tragedy of the vandalism of last summer we are delighted that some of the restoration work is coming to a conclusion and we are looking forward to having our windows back in place."