A MASSIVE new exhibition space will bring real benefits to the Yorkshire farming community and celebrate the county at its best, according to the woman who oversaw the £11.5 million project.

The new hall at the Great Yorkshire Showground will host a range of happenings, from sporting events to conferences, as well as being used for the show itself next month.

The project is the biggest in the history of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, and the hall provides the biggest single exhibition space in Yorkshire and the north-east, according to Heather Parry, the society's deputy chief executive.

Hall 1, as it is known, provides 4,320 sq metres of space, and has a 36-metre glass front elevation flanked by an 8-metre-high Yorkshire stone wall and an 8-metre-high copper wall.

Miss Parry, who project-managed the development, said: "I'm really proud of everybody who has worked on that project, it's been a real labour of love.

"But it will bring real benefits to the Yorkshire farming community."

The society is involved all-year-round in supporting the farming industry and rural communities, with all profits from the Yorkshire Event Centre, its commercial arm, given back to the society to fund its work.

In addition to that the hall would stage agriculture-related events, from countryside days for youngsters to 'huge machinery shows'. Miss Parry said: "Anything that can drive on a road can go in there."

She said though other venues might have greater combined exhibition space, the new hall contained the largest single space in the county and the north-east, and was extremely versatile.

For its opening last week it had 'live room sets', including one for a 400-seat conference, a dinner set up for 400 and an exhibition set, plus a sporting area with table tennis, football, snooker and even dodgems.

Events already signed up include a three-year deal for the Northern Shooting Show, a corporate management conference in September for 2,000 delegates and Howdens Joinery's Christmas celebration for 1,100 in December.

She praised the society for its 'visionary' approach towards the project, reflecting its innovative attitude which led to it deciding in 1950 to create the purpose-built Great Yorkshire Showground. "It's still innovative and trying to secure a very strong future.

"It said: 'This is a big deal, let's do it right.

"Showing off Yorkshire at its best is very much part of it."

The Bishop of Leeds, the Right Rev Nick Baines, pulled a huge ribbon with Miss Parry to officially open Hall 1. He said it fitted perfectly within its surroundings on the 250-acre showground in Harrogate, adding: “Not only is it unique, it is also ambitious and it shows something about Yorkshire: that we want to aim high. It is a fabulous building.”