The owners of one of Cumbria's most famous farms has praised the impact superfast broadband has had on their business.

Kim Inglis-Jeffries and her husband David Jeffries have found the technology has been a huge boost for their work and personal lives at Blencogo Farm, famous for its alpacas.

In particular, it has helped them to become more productive and attract more visitors.

Mrs Inglis-Jeffries said: “Life before fibre – I don’t really know how to describe it. The internet was so slow here and for the farm we rely on using the internet and social media. We send and use lots of photographs and I could waste half a day trying to send an email with photographs on it whereas now it just goes like that! It’s made the absolute world of difference.

“It’s really important obviously that we can do things on the website – keep people up to date when we have babies born or when we’re doing things like shearing or mating we need to be able to tell people. And now we can do it at the touch of a button.”

She added: “What we’ve found is with the fibre broadband, we can react much quicker, we can reach more people and we have started to have people who have come from Manchester or further afield who have seen something on social media and decided that they would like a hands-on experience.”

Mr Jeffries also runs a business from the farm, Ministry of Doing, which is a company that provides digital services from consultancy through to building websites, with clients all over the world. Having superfast fibre broadband has enabled him to communicate with them a lot better than before.

The fibre broadband was made available through Connecting Cumbria, a multi-million pound partnership between Cumbria County Council, BT and the Government to provide superfast services across the county.

Jonathan Harris, Connecting Cumbria senior programme manager, said: “It’s great to see businesses like the alpaca farm in Blencogo getting access to superfast broadband.

“And, of course, we’re trying to do that across Cumbria, not just for businesses but for individuals, school children, everybody - we’re trying to provide that superfast broadband infrastructure.”

Steve Haines, managing director for Openreach, the local network business which is part of BT Group, said: “Cumbria has some very challenging terrain with some major obstacles to overcome as we deliver high-speed fibre broadband to as many communities and businesses as possible, such as farms like Blencogo.”

More than nine out of ten premises across the UK can access superfast broadband speeds. For more details on the roll-out visit openreach.co.uk/whereandwhen