Thank you so much for replying guys.
1. I’ve tried the usual “deactivate all plugins” approach however sadly can’t seem to get it to work. Is there some internal/theme setting that I should look at? The theme I am using is Arras.
2. I’ve tried editing the Searchform.php and sadly this is not it.
3. I’m tempted to change the theme itself to Thesis, however I am concerned about potential issues. What normally happens when you swap themes over with a content filled site in this situation? ie. will I lose anything? what will I need to do? do I need to add and set up all the plugins again?
Thank you so much for the help in advance.