A PIECE of Blackburn's history has had a hair-raising journey across the Atlantic to come home to the town's musuem.

The journey began after a ceremonial wig once worn by Sir Lewis Beard, town clerk of Blackburn from 1903 to 1930, was discovered in the basement of the Early American Museum at Mahomet, Illinois.

Coun Michael Law-Riding, executive member for leisure and culture for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: "We got a call from America saying they had found this wig - they had made the Blackburn connection by searching our Cottontown website - it was agreed that the wig should return to its proper home in Blackburn."

But disaster nearly struck when the wig, which is housed in a beautifully painted tin case, was impounded by British Customs. They mistakenly believed that tax should have been paid on the item.

Coun Law- Riding said: "We were afraid that the wig would be sent back to the USA - luckily we were able to explain that as a gift from one museum to another, it is exempt from Import Tax."

Lewis Beard was one of the town's longest serving town clerks, a role that is nowadays carried out by the chief executive. Beard was knighted in 1919 in recognition of his outstanding service to the local community.

Nick Harling, keeper of community and social history at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery thinks he knows how the wig end up thousands of miles away in the basement of an American museum.

He said: "We know that Lewis Beard married an American woman in 1890, so it may be that the wig returned to her side of the family when Beard died in 1933."

Following its journey half way around the world, the wig will be placed on public display at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, which is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4.45pm.