Childhood sweethearts from Keighley have been reunited after more than four decades apart.

Irvine Mitchell now lives in Australia and his former girlfriend Mona North lives in the Isle of Man.

After meeting again they have decided to remain in their homes, near their relatives, but spend up to half of each year together.

Irvine, 78, and Mona, 77, told the Keighley News of their good luck last week during their first return visit to Keighley.

And Irvine spoke of his time as a 14-year-old apprentice helping to build the original Keighley Bus Station in 1937.

The Keighley-born couple first met when they were 15, after Irvine saw Mona sitting at the bottom of Spring Gardens Lane.

They courted just before the Second World War but were separated when Irvine joined the army and Mona the Royal Air Force.

Each met someone else and subsequently married, and the couples, who both lived in Keighley after the war, remained friends.

Irvine emigrated to Australia in 1955 and Mona moved first to Blackpool and then the Isle of Man, where she has lived for the past 30 years.

The pair lost contact and their partners subsequently died. Then last year Mona's niece saw Irvine's sister in Keighley and passed on the addresses. The pair began writing.

Mona says: "I phoned him and said "If you're ever in England, come over and see me." A couple of weeks later he said he was on his way.

"He stayed nine weeks, then I went over to stay with him. This time he's come for three months and we decided to come back to Keighley," adds Mona.

During their four-day stay with relatives in the town, the pair visited old haunts and saw how much they have changed.

Irvine remembers the Hippodrome Theatre, which was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the shopping centre, as well as other town centre buildings.

He says: "I come back and find everything's been knocked down. It's not the same town. It had a lot of character before.

"If I see an old building it brings back happy memories. My memories of Keighley are of a terrific town with everyone working -- a terrific place to be in."

Irvine was an apprentice joiner in the mid-1930s when his employer, H V Robinson, of Alice Street, worked on the bus station.

He was pleased to see parts of his original work intact, including the wooden doors on the station's newsagents/travel office building.

Irvine's father, Walter Mitchell, was the trainer with the Keighley Rugby League Club when it played at Wembley in 1937.

Irvine returns to Australia this month and Mona will go out to join him in January. They will commute between each other's homes for as long as they can. "We'll finish up with shares in Quantas," jokes Irvine.