It is spoken of nationwide as a template for transforming ailing agriculture into thriving business.

It has been 20 years in the evolution and is still growing, its message and ideas being spread across the UK and abroad.

The place is Broughton Hall, Skipton, and the venture, a pioneering business park. It has been masterminded by Roger Tempest, who took over the family pile and began turning redundant buildings flanking the magnificent country house into hives of industry.

There are now 50 companies employing about 600 people - more than were employed in the estate's agricultural heyday - in some of the most idyllic surroundings in the region.

The firms are as diverse as furniture and pram designers, hydrologists, a theatrical agency, call centres, magazine publishers and a centre for crisis psychology.

Many are ensconced in hi-tech offices occupying transformed, centuries-old buildings - former barns, cow sheds, a saw mill and stable blocks.

There are three outfits working from the restored water mill that once fed the estate and one firm in the old wheelhouse.

Expansion continues and today work is progressing on converting a former farm off the A59 Skipton road into office accommodation.

Hannah Fell, business park manager, said: "We are always looking for new ideas and for potential to expand even further."

Even with the phenomenal expansion of the estate, the setting is still overwhelmingly rural with the magnificent views across to the Yorkshire Dales and over the

parkland.

And it is this away-from-it-all atmosphere that attracts many companies to uproot from the urban conurbations of Leeds, Bradford and Manchester to set up shop at Broughton Hall.

Among them are companies like Essential Lingerie, which occupies Griffin House, one of two new buildings on the estate.

The production has been driven over the last five years by partners Julie Evans, 47, and 36-year-old Sally Bramhall. Broughton Hall is the design hub of the business which sends their products to some of the top stores in the UK - including Miss Selfridge, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams.

Manufacture is done abroad but storage of their products is done just down the road in Keighley. Mrs Price believes the environment has played an important part in the success of the company.

"We chose Broughton Hall over Leeds or some industrial unit because of the location, which I believe helps both from a creative and a people point of view," she said.

"We spend a lot of time at work so why not spend it in a wonderful environment like this rather than cooped up in some office in an inner city?"

And being on a site like Broughton Hall, which had such a variety of buildings, it meant there was flexibility to move into larger premises if companies grow and contract if needs be.

Companies with long pedigrees like Silver Cross are now forging ahead from Broughton Hall. It was taken over by a new team and shifted from Guiseley where the company had traded and manufactured for

130 years.

Now, thanks to new lines coming out of Broughton like the multi-design-award-winning Linear Freeway - rock star Rod Stewart has been seen pushing one - the company has experienced a boom in sales worldwide. The prams - including the traditional, coach-built Balmoral - are sold as far away as Japan, Canada, Australia and South Africa.

At the helm of the company is chairman Alan Halsall, a Broughton Hall fan. He said: "We wanted to set up in Yorkshire but in a rural location, not an industrial site. We wanted somewhere to stimulate creativity. We are not manufacturing here, that is done abroad.

"Broughton Hall is a fabulous environment, a stimulating place but also a place that we feel will attract people to come and work here with us. This is a rural location but, at the same time, it is not too far from Bradford, Leeds and Manchester."

Susannah Daley's company PEEL - Partnership, Events and Entertainment - is an agency supplying entertainers and dancers for cruise ships.

Originally from Keighley where she worked with the local youth theatre, Susannah Daley believes Broughton Hall is an ideal location for a company which deals with creative arts.

"This is a beautiful place to work - this is a seven-days-a-week operation and our consideration when looking for somewhere was that it would have to be inspirational," she said. "An environment like this is less stressful, it's tranquil and helps us work better."

And, like her business colleagues, she says Broughton is convenient for the big cities of the North.

Andy Tordoff, Yorkshire Forward's head of rural renaissance and tourism, said Broughton Hall was a fine example of how to turn round the rural economy but was at the far end of the spectrum.

There was also a need for smaller working spaces which would help stimulate the rural economy.

But to sustain them, they needed to have access to services and this was where new technology came into

its own.

More people were wanting to work closer to where they lived and there was also a need for live/work space and these could be provided in concepts like Broughton Hall.

"Tell me what businesses you can't set up in a rural area - with the exception of certain planning restrictions, there isn't one," he said.

There were hurdles but they were there to overcome as had been demonstrated at Broughton Hall.