Remote control

IF IT is remoteness coupled with an earthy beauty that the visitors to the new Blackton Grange Development Centre crave, then they won't be disappointed. The centre is reached via a narrow road next to Balderhead Reservoir, in Teesdale, up a stony track which sweeps around before descending to a gate and a stone built farmhouse. Apparently, satellite navigation systems can bring you a different way, to a dead end if you're not watching where you're going.

Surrounded by vivid green pasture - with a stiff breeze whipping around it today - the centre is better known for its former guise as Baldersdale Youth Hostel, shelter for the many Pennine Way walkers.

But while it still caters for guests at weekends and school holidays, it is also used as a centre for training and development, a place where corporate clients can go on their team building missions while breathing in the fresh Teesdale valley air and eating home cooked, locally-sourced food.

The closure of the hostel was seen as a devastating blow to the dale when it was announced in March 2006 as part of the Youth Hostel Association's (YHA) national plan to close those which were not proving cost effective. The guest numbers did not warrant Baldersdale staying open, said the YHA, and it needed substantial investment.

The hostel and its attached ten acres were subsequently bought by the Cambridge-based First Ascent Group in February this year. Since then, the company - which specialises in delivering tailor-made development courses - has spent £55,000 on upgrading the hostel with plans to spend a further £200,000 converting the barn into more accommodation and developing the grounds.

Inside, the centre still has the familiar bunk beds but with new bedding and fluffy towels in freshly painted rooms. It sleeps 37 in typical six-bed dorms and is intended to be hired as a whole. It is still advertised via the YHA website as part of their Escape To... scheme.

"It's been significantly upgraded from what it was," says Jan Arger, centre manager. "We've got new mattresses and bedding and we've cleaned it all up. We're going to see how people use the bunks, see what the client base wants, before we change anything.

"There aren't many places in the Dale that can accommodate this many people. It's a great place to hire for birthday parties with all your friends for example and we can do the catering if people want us to."

Meals are eaten in the blue painted kitchen dining room, complete with its original red quarry tiles from its days as a farm. Downstairs, the lounge has been repainted in cosy reds, the perfect accompaniment to the huge stone fireplace which keeps the room warm during the harsh Teesdale winters. It has a flat screen television in one corner - "the men do like their sport," says Jan - and the centre has broadband, wireless technology, etc - although (thankfully for most) no mobile phone signal apart from a particular spot in the yard.

The training room smells of fresh white paint, although one envisages it being hard to concentrate without gazing out of the sash window at the beautiful scenery. Jan reveals there are plans to go green too.

"We'd like to have a small wind turbine, solar panels and we have our own water supply," she says. "We try to use local foods and we want to put our own kitchen garden in."

Outside, the barn houses another training room and, at the moment, the builders' paint pots and the mountain bikes which are available for hire. They hope to put up tepees on the former camp site - "they're just a bit different", says Jan - and create a barbecue area.

Steve Bentley, a director and co-owner of the First Ascent Group, says as soon as he saw the hostel he knew they had to buy it. His partner's father spotted it for sale in a Sunday broadsheet and he knew it would be the ideal base for his corporate clients - a centre from which they could be kayaking one day, learning how to handle the pressure of the job, or discussing the day's adventures in the lounge, glass of wine in hand.

"It's remote but accessible and it's not too grand. It gives off the message that for the next few days we're going to roll our sleeves up and get stuck in. There's no standing on ceremony here," says Steve, who worked in sales and marketing for companies such as Coca Cola and Bass Brewers before co-buying First Ascent.

And while some in the corporate world may turn up in their shiny Mercedes, used to the trappings of civilisation and, perhaps, a tad daunted by its rugged isolation, they often leave with a different frame of mind.

'Sometimes people are apprehensive that we're going to have them running all over the moors, but we're not here to beast them. We have an approach called challenge by choice. If anybody doesn't want to do anything, they can just speak up. If they don't want to jump in a kayak or go gorge walking, there's something else they can do.

"We have things like a mountain rescue experience, where mid afternoon the guys may be running something and we'll drop a radio message into the training room saying that they're going to have to rescue a fellow casualty and off they go.

"We had a woman here recently who hadn't done any outdoor activities since she was a girl. Afterwards she contacted us to say she'd renewed her interest in the outdoors thanks to the time spent here. It's wonderful to hear feedback like that."

Some of the clients end up coming back, hiring the venue for parties with their friends. It may no longer be a youth hostel as such, but the aim is to keep this quiet corner of Teesdale busy with visitors from across the country.

"We're on schedule with the work, as much as we can be given the rain we've had," adds Jan. "But really, we want to run it for a while to find out what people want. It's so tranquil here. It's a wonderful facility."

* To hire the centre, from £750 for two nights, contact 01833-650629 or log onto www.blacktongrange.com.