Buddhists are "back home" in Keighley in the house they first used as a meeting place more than ten years ago.

The three storey, 100-year-old terrace house, in Skipton Road, was sold in 1995 when the group outgrew the accommodation and most members moved to Todmorden.

Now the few left behind in Keighley have grown in numbers and have bought it back, after raising £56,000.

Frances Cowans, a buddhist for the past 12 years, said: "It feels spiritually right to be here. We're back home. I lived here the first time we owned the house.

"The day we got the key again and I walked in it was as if I had not been away. I felt like I was coming home again."

The Keighley Kadampa centre has around 15 members, who helped raise the cash to buy the property.

It was sold in the mid 1990s after it became too small and the group moved to Dobroyd Castle, Todmorden.

A core of buddhists stayed in Keighley and continued to worship at the Friends Meeting House and the Keighley Voluntary Service base.

"Our numbers have grown again over the last few years -- there are between 12 and 15 of us," she said.

"We have been raising money to find a centre and then this house came back on the market. It was if it was meant to be."

The group had altered the property in the early 1990s to make it suitable, so it was ideal to move back in, she added.

The house can accommodate four members, including the centre's monk, 27-year-old Kelsang Tsewang.

It has a shrine where members worship and meditate, meet every Monday, at 7.30pm, and hold daily prayers.

From Monday the group is holding a week-long retreat for members and friends.

Anyone interested in learning more about the group or who wishes to join should telephone 01535 681170, or call round on Monday evenings.

* Buddhism is about 2,500 years old but only became popular in the West during the 1960s and 70s. It has about 247 million followers worldwide.