A REWARD has been offered for the safe return of historic wooden panels which have mysteriously disappeared.

They had been rescued from a restaurant before it was demolished.

The three boskins - large pieces of wood used to divide stable blocks into compartments - were recovered from the former Manor Barn Restaurant, in Padiham Road, Burnley, which had lain empty for years and was recently demolished.

They are believed to be the original boskins from the stable at Queen Street Mill, now a museum, and were due to be returned there.

The heavy wood panels, which have diamond shapes cut into them, would have completed restoration work to return the stable to how it looked when it was built in 1901.

But after being removed from the restaurant, where they had been part of the fixtures and fittings since the late 1970s, they were removed from the demolition site, which is protected by a metal security fence.

Ian Gibson, from Lancashire County Council's museums service, said he was disappointed that the boskins had gone.

He said: "They are not valuable in a monetary sense, but they are historically valuable.

"We have completely restored the stables externally and the original boskins would have helped to complete the inside as well.

"We can, of course, use replica ones, but it would have been nice to have the originals."

The museums service arranged with Persimmon Homes, the development firm that bought the site and is building 19 properties on it, that the boskins would be rescued by the contractors brought into demolish the restaurant.

A van was sent to pick them up, but it was too small and the developer said it would provide a wagon to drop them off at the mill.

But it took some days to arrive and when it did they had disappeared.

A spokesman for Persimmon Homes, based in Kendal, Cumbria, said the panels disappeared between Monday, April 5 and Wednesday, April 7.

He said: "They have not been taken away by the demolition contractor by mistake so we can only assume they have been stolen."

The theft has not yet been reported to the police.

The demolition firm, Ashworth Demolition, has offered to pay £100 for each boskin if they are returned.

The boskins were sold to the restaurant owner before the mill closed in 1982.

The stable was used to keep the steam powered Victorian mill's three transport horses, who brought the yarn in and took the cloth out until 1926, when it decided to move to motor transport.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the boskins can contact the museum on 01282 459996, Persimmon Homes on 01539 560486 or Ashworth demolition on 0800 0191525.