HISTORIC stained glass windows and memorial plaques inside Blackburn Royal Infirmary will be rescued from the bulldozers and built into the new multi million pound extension to Queen's Park Hospital.

Project managers working on the £86 million extension to the hospital, which will replace the infirmary, have revealed that they are looking into moving all 12 of the windows early on in construction of the new building, possibly next year.

The windows, varying in size up to seven foot, are all in The Circle section of the original infirmary building, which dates back to 1858 and are all original.

They show the coats of arms of areas of the town involved in building the hospital.

It is not known how much they are worth but they are thought to be valuable.

Managers working on the project say they intend to build them in as a feature into the new building.

They will also be saving plaques to former staff and commemorative plaques to those who died in the first and second world wars.

Although project staff had intended to save the windows all along, details of the plans had not been included in its business case.

Project manager Jackie Hadwen said: "We don't want to lose the history of BRI at all. In essence, the staff are the heart of the hospital and we want to keep that.

The plans are at such an early stage that no discussions have yet been held with local historical groups or with constructors Balfour Beatty.

Mrs Hadwen said it was not expected that the process of preserving the windows would add hugely to the project itself.

She said: "We have only just started discussing this, but it has always been our intention to do this right from the beginning.

"We discussed saving them in 1998. No-one envisages it being a major problem from the discussions that we have had so far, but they are at a very early stage and we have not yet consulted with the preferred bidder about the windows or the British Legion about the plaques."

Albert Branscombe, from the Blackburn Local Historical Society, said: "I am grateful for any small mercies that have been shown to a very important structure.

"The original building itself is very attractive and personally, and as a society I am sure, we would ideally like to see the original building preserved as some sort of public building."

Nigel Robinson, chief officer with Blackburn Community Health Council, said: "We would obviously like to see the historical aspects preserved from the building and obviously the stained glass windows are an integral part of that.

"We don't mind whether they are incorporated into the new building, or preserved in some other way, but it is extremely important that they are saved."

The infirmary was built in 1858 and paid for partly by donations from the public.

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen council said it was not a protected or listed building.