A UNIQUE fragment of a stained glass window, which survived Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, has finally been returned to the region.

Featuring a red cockerel, it was rediscovered by English Heritage amongst unrecorded items from Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire.

The shard had lain forgotten in a cardboard box for more than 80 years at the agency's Central Science Laboratory in Portsmouth.

Measuring ten centimetres square, the fragile fragment miraculously survived intact and is the most complete ever found at the 900-year-old ruins.

It is also the only one out of 8,500 glass pieces recovered from the site that depicts a complete animal.

The cockerel's first escape was in 1538 when Henry VIII looted the nation's abbeys.

After being removed, the best quality glass went to London and lesser grades were sold locally or melted.

Experts believe the King's men discarded the cockerel as rubbish and it joined more than 50,000 tonnes of masonry, soil and rubble that accumulated over the next four centuries.

Just after the First World War, it saw sunlight once again when archaeologist Sir Charles Peers used de-mobbed soldiers to clear Rievaulx's debris, which was up to five metres deep in places, and uncovered thousands of relics.

However, records were often incomplete and after being lifted from the rubble, the cockerel was entombed in an anonymous cardboard box for more than 80 years with few realising its importance.

John Lax, English Heritage head custodian at Rievaulx, said: "It is a very high quality piece of work that would have been painted by a professional craftsman. It's a miracle it has survived."

The abbey is open daily from 10am to 5pm. For more information, call (01439) 798228.