Sharon Griffiths turns off the A66 at the hugely successful Mainsgill Farm Shop, where everything is growing, from barns to baby camels

ALL Andrew and Maria Henshaw ever wanted to do was farm. Now, not only are they successful farmers, but they also have one of the biggest farm shops in the north. This month they opened the granary food hall at their Mainsgill Farm shop on the A66, a few miles west of Scotch Corner. It’s added a massive 10.000 sq ft of selling space to their business and looks amazing. “We just wanted it to be right,” said Maria.

It looks just like a marvellous beamed barn, has pillars made from 300-year-old bricks rescued from a barn in Cumbria. The flagstones were once on Stockton’s High Street. There are display stands made from rough-hewn trees. The splendid wooden staircase is a focal point.

Yet it’s not all rustic - the 28 metres of top-of-the-range chill display cabinets came from Italy as the Henshaws wanted the best they could get and went to Venice to find it. It was also the nearest they’ve had for a holiday for some time…

The counters are full of meat, all raised and prepared on their farm. Specially prepared meat cuts in sauces and ready meals, award-winning sausages, pies, quiches, cakes and puddings and a great range of cheeses, mainly local but with a couple of interesting “foreigners” as well. They have all sorts of awards. They also have good value packs of meat – a different selection each month – which are proving very popular.

Display stands – based on one-ton potato boxes, with their names and the date they came to the farm on the side - show off a huge variety of local produces – jams, chutneys, preserves. There are farm carts full of local beers. Everything looks good and fresh and tempting.

And green too – it’s run on a biomass boiler using woodchip from up the road at Barningham.

Even before the new building, Mainsgill has been a stunning success story. Yet it could all have been so different.

When Maria and Andrew moved on to Mainsgill in 1995, they’d found a farm, got married and moved in, all in the space of six weeks. They were still in their twenties and mortgaged up to the hilt. “The worst possible time for farming. There was BSE, plunging milk prices. Farming was in crisis," says Maria. “We were 23 and 27 and we were determined we weren’t going back to Lancashire to say we couldn’t do it.”

From the very beginning, they set their target high and raised their animals to high welfare standards. “We wanted our meat to taste of meat,” says Andrew, “not that stuff that looks nice, but doesn’t taste of anything.”

Instead of taking their meat to market, they sold it direct to their customers, going round door to door and attending farmers’ markets. At first they packed it in a converted garage next to their house, finally got planning permission for their first purpose-built shop - then the torrential rains delayed the building work. When they finally opened, the region was hit by foot-and-mouth and they had to promptly close again…

Undeterred, the Henshaws carried on working all the hours in the day, determined to do things their way. They extended the shop, extended the tea room. At first they just had six tables, now they can seat 150.

There’s a playground and ride-on tractors. Their straw bale sculptures, such as the ones for the royal wedding and the Tour de France - have attracted smiles, attention and publicity.

And there are animals – as well as the farm animals for people to see, they also have camels – including a baby one – and llamas.

They’re lucky in that they have the A66 with its constant flow of traffic right on their doorstep. But that has its drawbacks too. In winter, the road is often closed because of snow. And in the first week of their new granary opening, the road was closed twice because of accidents.

When they built one of their many extensions, work was delayed one of the coldest winters in history. “But we’ve always had brilliant people. Jonathan Wood excelled himself – working on the roof in minus 15 degrees,” says Andrew.

Nothing was ever straightforward, but above all, the Henshaws are workers. In the early days, they did nearly everything themselves – as well as bringing up three children - packing meat at night after a day on the farm, making sausages, labelling, baking. Now they employ 50 staff, including seven butchers and four bakers, “but I still make all the fruit cakes” says Maria.

All the meat comes from their farm. When business grew, they bought another farm so they now have 500 acres. Their beef is all heifer beef, fed traditionally, given time to develop and hung for three weeks. They have 350 ewes and 300 store pigs. Farming is still the centre of their business.

But its success is seen in the shop. They have no retail training, but a natural instinct that could show the likes of Marks & Spencer and Tesco a thing or two. “You learn by your pocket” says Maria, as we look at the outline of their first shop, unable to believe it was so small. “And we wondered then if we’d ever fill it…”

When they first started, they had so little money to play with that dealing with suppliers was hard. Raydale Preserves were one of the first to have faith in them and have been with them from the very beginning. Their reward now is a huge display area in a prime spot, “a thank you for their faith in us".

The first floor features country clothing gifts – handbags Cath Kidston china, cards, lovely looking boots – and comfy leather armchairs where you can sit and think about things. From all the windows there are splendid views over Holmedale, so despite the A66 at the other side, you can never forget you really are in the countryside.

But for those in a hurry in the new building, they’ve also got an express stop. “People can just come in pick up a snack and a coffee and go,” says Maria.

The Henshaws were determined to open their new shopping barn on November 1 – even though builders, staff and everyone involved thought it impossible. But the family and the whole team worked their socks off, from crack of dawn to midnight for weeks and met the deadline. “We’ve had great people working here," says Maria. "They’ve been fantastic.”

But there’s no time to rest. Now they’re busy getting ready for Christmas with a Christmas shop, special tastings, huge number of orders for meat and catering - they do hampers and party food as well - and a Christmas tree from floor to ceiling.

Then they might even take a short holiday – until they come up with the next plan.

• Mainsgill Farm Shop and Tea Room. Sun-Fri, 9am-5pm; Saturdays, 8.30am–5pm; T: 01325-718860; W: mainsgillfarm.co.uk.