The barber who went missing from his Keighley shop 12 years ago left £150,000 in his will to a heritage museum, it can be revealed.

Malcolm Berry, who has been legally pronounced dead, left the legacy to the Beamish Open Air Museum in Stanley, County Durham. But managers there are mystified as to why Mr Berry chose the museum to be the beneficiary of his will.

The bachelor has not been seen since he left his barber's shop in Drill Street, Keighley - where a poster of the museum hung on the wall - in August 1991. He was aged 56.

Anne Burton, Beamish head of fund-raising, said: "We are in the dark why Mr Berry left us the money. It came right out of the blue but we're extremely grateful for his generosity. It is one of the largest legacies we've ever had."

The money would go towards a £2 million project to extend the 1913 street scene and to an exhibition featuring a replica of Puffing Billy, the world's oldest steam engine, built in 1814.

"We believe he visited us on a number of occasions. He had a poster of the museum in his shop. But he is not listed among the Friends of Beamish and he has no connections with the development trust," she added. "I checked to see if he had left an artefact, but he hasn't."

His solicitors, Turner & Wall of Keighley, have been granted leave to swear his death and are seeking people who believe they are creditors. Solicitor Myron Handzij said Mr Berry had given no hint in his will why he had left the money to the museum.

"I have been in his shop and saw a poster to Beamish so I presume he visited the museum," he said.

Leave to swear a death was permissible after seven years, but they had waited longer because of the unusual nature of the case. Leave was given on December 10, 2002.

Mr Berry, whose death has been dated as August 10, 1991, was last seen about then. A message on his shop door said he would be returning on August 27.