A quirky and elegant family-run café is celebrating a decade serving delicious food and divine cakes in a new home.

The aptly named Divine Café is now Divine on the Green. A year ago, it moved from a rural location by the A4 in Cherhill, beneath the white horse, into what used to be the George pub, by the green in Calne.

Divine has become something of an institution amongst its many fans, with over a thousand followers on social media and events that book up swiftly. Patrons of the popular café have followed it to the new location and owners Mark and Jane Slingo have plans for evening events and an online shop. People travel from far and wide to sample the homemade food and amazing cakes at Divine, where customers are always made welcome.

“Everyone who walks through the door is valuable to us,” Mark said. “We want them to come back! And after ten years, we have seen children go through schools and grow up. We have become part of people’s lives. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way – just that with our focus in one area, we have become a part of it – involved in different times in people’s lives.”

Mark, who lives in Calne, had a very different career before opening Divine. For 20 years, he worked in the film industry, in post-production. Deciding on a complete change, he and Jane chose to do outside catering, and spied a building in Cherhill – once a petrol station, then briefly an occult bookshop – which was standing empty. They took out a ten-year lease.

“We renovated it completely. It wasn’t fit for anything, it was in a derelict condition,” Mark said. “The focus changed quickly from doing outside catering. We developed a menu, and eventually ended up with a loyal following.”

The café soon stood out from the coffee shop chains, for its superb home cooking – masterminded by Jane – and its unique appearance, beautifully adorned with murals by a former television art director, Roger Bowles.

Divine quickly garnered a reputation for its cakes, and attracted tourists, walkers, and a following of local customers.

“We were always looking for ways to reinvent ourselves, and Roger helped immensely,” Mark said. “We soon had regular walkers coming in, and people visiting the monument and Avebury, but also most of all, lots of local regulars.”

They served breakfasts, light lunches and afternoon teas, and the business is still very much a family affair - daughter Becky is now general manager.

“Everything is made by my wife – that is an enormous part of the business. She cooks from seven in the morning, with breakfasts served from nine.

“We have three daughters and each of them has worked for us through their teens and university. My mother in law, Sandra Gill, my wife’s mother – she has worked with us from the start.”

As the lease on their first premises approached its end, the Slingo family was faced with a challenge to find somewhere new.

“The owners had decided to develop the land. We spent a year searching for premises which would have kept us connected to our existing client base. We looked in Chippenham, Devizes, Wootton Bassett and Marlborough.

“We had been driving past this place each and every day, and it had been empty for eight years. It was an old pub. For the last six years people seemed to be working on it, and I asked one of the builders about it. He gave me the details of the owner – I spoke to them and we struck a deal.

“We came in and decorated it and brought it up to what it is today.”

Divine on the Green opened in October last year. The new premises beautifully furnished, with light pouring in from windows on three sides. While the aesthetic of the old building in a town, in Calne’s Heritage Quarter, is different from its former location at the foot of the downs, the coffee, pastries and cake are as marvellous as ever.

“This site gives us more scope for things we wanted to do, such as opening in the evening. We have wine tasting once a month, and we’re opening an online shop, selling our own gourmet foods, called the Divine Larder,” Mark said.

Evening events have so far included a Taste of the Mediterranean evening, which was fully booked within 48 hours. The next will be at the end of October, on the theme of the bounty of autumn. The first Sunday of the month, Divine offers a breakfast club – another event so popular you have to book in advance.

“It’s long days and lots of hard work, and it’s never going to make us filthy rich, but when it’s going well and the sun’s shining, it’s great,” Mark said.

For more information, visit divineonthegree.co.uk.