The 19th century meets the 21st as one of Keighley's oldest retail businesses looks out on the town's ultra-modern new bus station.

Speak's staff have seen all three major changes to the bus station over the past six decades from their shop in Lawkholme Crescent.

And although construction work has hit passing trade, the 118-year-old family firm expects to be still there when the bus station needs its next upgrade.

Speak's moved from Bridge Street to Lawkholme Crescent in 1938, two years before the building of Keighley's first purpose-built bus station.

The shop survived the 1960s redevelopment of Keighley, when much of the town centre was demolished to make way for what is now the Airedale Centre.

And at the start of the 1980s it doubled in size when it bought the next-door Driver's Milk Bar to expand its range of outdoor clothing.

Now Speaks has a large local customer base for its workwear, and attracts customers from across the North of England for its walking gear.

The firm was founded in Halifax in 1884 by Richard Speak, and the first Keighley store in Bridge Street was open by the end of the 19th century.

Ownership passed to Richard's nephew Frank, then Frank's son Richard and grandson Michael.

Speak's is now run by Richard's daughter Tracy Wowk, her husband Peter and mother Jean.

As well as having the shop, Speak's, until the end of the 1960s, specialised in making its own industrial clothing.

As demand for own-make clothing declined the company diversified into selling outdoor clothing alongside the workwear.

The outdoor side of the business has suffered in recent months because construction work on the new bus station has made it difficult for customers to reach the shop.

But demand for workwear -- which does not depend on personal callers -- has remained strong and has helped Speak's remain successful.

The shop last week loaned the Keighley News an artist's impressions of the 1960s town centre redevelopment, drawn before work was carried out.

It also provided a scrapbook containing photographs and a history of the firm, written several decades ago by the late Nadine Woodward, a member of the Speak family.