WORK on a £10m state-of-the-art venue at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate began on Wednesday.

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) began demolition of exhibition hall one to make way for the new building. Completion is scheduled for late spring 2016, with bookings already being taken.

The new hall will offer a clear, versatile space of 4,320m2 to suit a wide range of events from blue chip company conferences to large dinners and exhibitions or sporting events. It will also have a café, large foyer, offices and dedicated workshop/seminar space. The building adjoins an existing hall, giving a total area of 6,270m2.

The showground is well known as the venue for the UK’s premier annual rural showcase, the Great Yorkshire Show, which attracts about 132,000 visitors over three days in July. In the other months, it is also used for a wide variety of events from weddings and conferences through to the Harrogate Spring and Autumn flower shows.

Heather Parry, deputy chief executive of YAS, said: “We are delighted to be starting work on such an exciting project, the largest in our organisation’s history.

"There’s so much potential in this development for us, our region and beyond. The economic impact that events on the showground generate per annum is currently £47m and this new project will see this figure increase significantly.

"To ensure existing business continues, we have hired a DeBoer Structure to create a temporary exhibition venue – so it will be business as usual while the build goes on.”

The showground spans 250 acres, which includes 14 function rooms at Pavilions of Harrogate, the Harrogate Caravan Park, and Fodder – the society’s award-winning regional food shop and café. These facilities are run by the YAS’s commercial arm, the Yorkshire Event Centre, with all profits going to fund the charitable work of the Society.

The contract for the new building was won by Yorkshire-based Clugston Construction Ltd. The architects are P+HS Architects, also based in Yorkshire.