LLAMA and alpaca trekking, bee keeping classes and falconry courses could all soon be coming to Edgworth.

Celia Gaze and Stephen Whitehead hope to base a wellbeing centre, conference and events venue at the 14-acre Wheatsheaf Hill Farm site in Plantation Road.

If plans go ahead, the couple will run lifestyle courses including cookery, wellbeing and rural crafts.

Demonstration sessions will be held, linking in with the family’s business, Whitehead’s Butchers and Deli, in Blackburn Road.

They will run butchery courses and people will be able to try bee keeping, falconry and attend jewellery-making classes.

Team-building exercises, romantic breaks and children’s parties also will be offered at the farm.

Llama and alpaca picnic treks exploring the West Pennine Moors are also in the pipeline.

The business plans to open next summer and would employ seven full-time staff.

The couple, who have a three-year-old son, hope to cater for up to 30 people and hold four and eight-hour activity packages at the farm, which is owned by Mr Whitehead’s family.

Miss Gaze, aged 41, a senior project manager, came up with the idea last year.

She said: “I went on a gift-wrapping course and came back and it was like a light bulb came on.

“You see more and more farms becoming barn conversions.

"This is trying to preserve the future of the farm.

“Edgworth is fantastic. It has beautiful scenery. We hope it would see a 25 per cent increase in visitors.

“It will bring new people in the area to local shops and restaurants.

"Not many people know about Edgworth. It is hidden and we want to put it on the map.”

Miss Gaze will run the facility and Mr Whitehead, aged 44, will deliver some of the courses.

New staff would run courses daily. The venue will involve transforming an empty agricultural building into a kitchen with table space, toilets and a reception area.

The upstairs would be used for corporate meetings.

A stable conversion, which is being used for the livery business, would be used for changing facilities.

North Turton Parish Council backed the application. Blackburn with Darwen Council will decide on the plans.