At just 19, Alice O’Brien must be one of the youngest – if not the youngest – entrepreneurs in Wiltshire.

Miss O’Brien, from Avon Road, Devizes, took over the Caen Hill Café on the historic flight of locks at Devizes in January and she is delighted at the way it is thriving.

She said: “I opened on January 20, probably the worst time of year to take it over, but things have been going really well.

“The good weather in March helped and the Easter holidays were really good. Now we just need a nice spell of weather over the summer and we’re fine.”

Miss O’Brien studied for her A-levels at Devizes School and was planning to study at Portsmouth University when her father, Simon, heard the lease on the café, which is owned by British Waterways, was up for grabs.

She said: “Dad heard about it at the golf course and asked me if I was interested. I had worked in a coffee bar before and I loved it, so it sounded right up my street.

“The day I heard I had been accepted at Portsmouth was the day I had my interview with British Waterways. I knew then that the café was what I wanted.”

Miss O’Brien employs eight part-time staff and she has recruited members of her family into helping her. Her grandfather, Phil O’Brien, keeps the café clean while gran Guin bakes cakes.

British Waterways used to run the café but put the lease out to tender in 2007. A number of tenants have tried their luck running the picturesque little eatery on the canal but none have managed to make a go of it.

But Miss O’Brien, whose boyfriend Adam Bentley is a member of the Royal Marines, is confident she will succeed. She said: “I have got a five-year lease and I’m sure it can be extended. I love it here and I know I can make it work.”

The café is open all year round from 10am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday and from 10am to 5.30pm at weekends.