THE Broughton Hall Estate and the Skipton based Yorkshire Dales Food and Drink Festival have been named winners in this year’s Welcome to Yorkshire White Rose Awards.

The Broughton Hall Estate won gold for ‘business events venue of the year’ while the annual Yorkshire Dales Food and Drink Festival, held at Funkirk Farm, between Skipton and Broughton, also won gold in the ‘tourism event’ category.

The Coniston Hotel Country Estate and Spa was runner up the ‘large hotel of the year’ category, and picked up a silver award.

Winners, and two runners up of the 19 categories were revealed yesterday (Monday) at a ceremony in Leeds hosted by former Emmerdale actor Natalie Anderson and broadcaster Rich Williams and featuring footballing legend Chris Kamara.

Simon Farrimond, general manager at the Broughton Hall Estate, who collected the award on behalf of the team, said the estate aimed to be a ‘jewel in Craven’.

“The dedication and commitment of the whole team has only made this possible. We aim to be a jewel in Craven’ and the Dales crown! Avalon - our new wellbeing centre - has been a remarkable addition to our 100 beds and different venues that we already have here on the estate,” he said.

The estate recently also won the ‘corporate experience award’ at the UK Heritage Awards.

Roger Tempest, the current and 32nd generation family custodian of the Broughton Hall Estate, added: “Redefining and regenerating the estate has been a very rewarding process hopefully for everybody.

“With over 700 people employed in this small rural parish and the wide diversity of activity within, it feels as if we have a strong sense of purpose and hopefully we can be a force for good and beacon of hope in this crazy world.

“A big thank you to our wonderful team and clients who make it all happen.”

Peter Box, chairman of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “I couldn’t have been prouder to have been a part of the White Rose Awards to see the very best in Yorkshire tourism honoured for their huge amount of hard work and dedication to making Yorkshire one of the best places to visit in the world. Every single winner whether they got a bronze, silver or gold should be incredibly proud.”