The traditional Devizes Cheesecake is being revived and will be on sale at this year’s Devizes Food and Drink Festival.

The recipe, which dates back to 1906 but has medieval origins, was given to local historian Dave Buxton by baker Leonard Strong, whose family had created it more than 100 years ago.

Strong’s bakery and cafe in the Market Place was called The Original Cheesecake and is now The Little House of Coffee.

Mr Buxton has now released the recipe to the chefs at the Bear Hotel so that it can be sold at the grand market fair, which opens the festival on Saturday.

Mr Buxton said: “I interviewed Leonard for a book of mine, Devizes Voices, back in the late 1990s. I asked him about the recipe for the cheesecake, but he always changed the subject.

“Eventually I wrote to him, saying that he wasn’t getting any younger and it would be shame for the recipe to be lost.

“The next time I saw him he told me he had taken the advice of his family solicitor and he was prepared to give me the recipe. Leonard died in about 1998.

“He didn’t actually tell me to keep it secret, but I kept it to myself, making cheesecakes from it at Christmas.”

The recipe is similar to other cooked cheesecakes made by Wiltshire bakers across the centuries.

Mr Buxton said: “It was a good way of using up sour milk and stale cake. Leonard’s recipe uses a lot of nutmeg, giving it a distinctive flavour. The Bear’s version is pretty close to Leonard’s recipe with the addition of roasted almonds on top. I think towns like Devizes need to keep their traditional food.”

In the past, Devizes Food and Drink Festival has revived Devizes Pie and the popular Devizes lardy cake.

This Saturday’s market fair is the first of a week’s events. Mr Buxton is giving a talk on the Devizes Cheesecake on Saturday at 2.30pm at Wiltshire Heritage Museum.

On Monday there is a demonstration of Portuguese cookery by Miquel Pestano at The Bistro in the Little Brittox and a foodie quiz at The Lamb.

To celebrate Bastille Day on Wednesday there is a dinner at the Bear Hotel ballroom featuring French food and a marriage of wine and food by Plank’s Farm Shop in the Cheese Hall at the town hall.

The festival concludes on Saturday July 17 with a Caribbean evening in The Shambles.

Tickets to all events are on sale at Devizes Books.