Hi Broomhill,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
To answer your question about restoring from your iOS 8 backup to your current phone running iOS 7, it is not supported. You will need to either update your iPhone to iOS 8, or transfer the content from the iOS 8 device to your computer, and then sync to your iOS 7 device.
iOS does not support restoring a backup from a newer version of iOS to a device using an older version of iOS.
Example: Restoring a backup from an iOS 7 device to an iOS 6.x or earlier device is not supported.
If you wish to transfer content from a device with a newer version of iOS to a device using an earlier version, follow these steps to transfer the content to your computer, and then use iTunes to sync the content to your device.
Note: Some content, including messages, app data, and other settings, cannot be transferred using this method.
iOS: Unable to restore from backup of a newer device
Cheers,
Alex H.