Packages are done and still being updated. In order to update it requires a reset of your current desktop to a 4.8.1 default setting.
So is there an easy way to get the previous panel settings back?
I've just updated to xfce 4.8 (late, I know, but I didn't even realise that I was not getting xfce updates, as I did not have that
Synaptic section selected 
) and, as Tex stated, my simple left-hand-side single panel has reverted to the default top and bottom ones.
I have backups of my system, but I'm not sure which file(s) I should revert to to get my nice panel back. Can anyone help?