Regional daily journalists have shared their memories after leaving the newspaper’s Victorian home for a new office.

Swindon Advertiser staff have now left Victoria Road, where it has been based since the 1870s, for Richmond House, on the outskirts of Swindon.

The distance between Victoria Road, in the Old Town area of Swindon, and Richmond House, in Dorcan, is around two-and-a-half miles.

The longest-serving Advertiser journalist is assistant editor Steve Webb, who joined as a reporter in April 1984.

The Swindon Advertiser’s old Victoria Road home

In a piece reflecting on the move, he wrote: “Having arrived from a relatively quiet district office of a weekly newspaper in Cornwall, the first thing that struck me about the interior of the Adver building was the general buzz and ceaseless activity.

“And my first impression of walking into the newsroom was the clatter of typewriters (ask your grandparents, kids), the loud ‘jingle’ ringing of the old style telephones, and a cloud of cigarette smoke that hovered just below the ceiling. Elsewhere, the building was packed with people, all performing a bewildering but vital range of tasks which went together to produce, at that time, four daily editions of the Swindon Evening Advertiser.

“And of course we had our own printing press. Within minutes of the last page having been sent, we could feel a rumble in the newsroom as the press was fired up two floors below us. It was exciting.

“Not that it’s not exciting now – it’s just different. The clatter of typewriters has been replaced by the softer tapping of computer keyboards, phones now come with a variety of ringtones – and, definitely a good thing, there’s no cigarette smoke.”

Deputy editor Michelle Tompkins, who first worked for the newspaper 29 years ago, added: “I have mixed feelings about leaving this Old Town landmark. It has been my office since I started as a trainee reporter here in 1989 – but anyone who has been inside the building in the past few years will agree it is time we moved on to something fresh and new.

“I remember walking into the Victoria Road newsroom for the very first time as a shy 15-year-old on work experience. The clatter of the typewriters and phones ringing non-stop were deafening; the barks of the news editor and the fearsome sub-editors even louder as they dished out their orders.

“A thick fug of cigarette smoke hung above everyone’s heads, and the entire workforce disappeared for at least two hours at lunchtime, out of the back door and into The Roaring Donkey. I fell in love with the job instantly.

“Things are very different today. The phones ring much less often as we conduct most of our interviews via email or social media, and I prefer to have a quiet word with the reporters rather than old-style barking. But the job is still essentially the same – telling the people of our community what’s going on in their home town. We might be leaving Old Town but we are not going away.”