After almost 15 years serving tea and buns in Devizes the owners of Quintessence Traditional Tea Room, Audrey and Scott Hulland, are shutting their cafe’s doors for the last time tomorrow.

The couple, who have worked together in the catering business for 22 years, took on the premises in St John’s Street in 2000 and have been serving hot drinks and cakes to locals and visitors ever since.

Now the pair are looking forward to retiring and having more time for their hobbies.

Mrs Hulland, a trained home economist, plans to spend her time making cards and doing craft and needlework. Her 66-year-old husband, a former Royal Navy commander, is hoping to take up painting.

Mrs Hulland said: “We are both quite creative people so it will be nice to have the time to work on our projects and to do the things we haven’t had time to do before.”

The couple started their first catering business in 1993. Wholesale bakery Con Brio Cooks delivered freshly baked goods all over the county.

Two years later the pair opened a cafe and wedding cake shop in New Park Street. Then, in 2000, they decided to close the wholesalers and realise Mrs Hulland’s dream of owning a tea room.

Mrs Hulland said: “It was a childhood dream of mine to own a tea room. It has been hard work but I’ve enjoyed it.”

The entrepreneurial duo have also turned their hands to selling books. They opened The Book Cellar underneath the tea rooms two and a half years ago after the closure of D’Arcy Books in the Chequers left Devizes without a secondhand book shop.

Mr Hulland said: “People in Devizes had nowhere to go for secondhand books apart from charity shops so we opened our own shop underneath the tea room.”

Both the book shop and Quintessence will close for the last time at 4.30pm tomorrow.

Mr Hulland said the premises will go up for sale as a new tenant has not been found.