A historic Norfolk church window has been taken away for repairs after generous donors raised enough money for the urgent maintenance work to take place.

The stained-glass east window at St Mary's Church in Diss is being restored by Devlin Plummer in Norwich after more than �78,000 was raised by businesses and residents to pay for lead around the window, which was showing the effects of wear and tear, to be replaced.

The Rev Maggie Swayze, assistant curate at the church, hoped the window would be back in place by early August, but a clear glass window had been installed in the meantime.

She joked: 'Because the window is clear glass, the light is actually just flooding in at the moment, which is fantastic. We do miss the stained glass window, but it is nice to let the light in. We are quite happy that the repairs are being done and we just hope the work goes to schedule.'

Restoration work is also being carried out to three smaller windows. The stained-glass window dates back to Victorian times and depicts the story of Christ's birth, death and resurrection.

In November, Ms Swayze said: 'It is not a danger to the public. It is not going to hurt anybody at the moment, but the re-lead work has got to be done at some point.'

An auction of promises event at Diss Corn Hall in September raised more than �8,000 towards the appeal fund.

The east window at St Mary's was installed in 1857 in memory of the Rev William Manning, who was rector of Diss from 1811 to 1857.