And it was literally the work of one man, William Morris, who was astute enough to see a loophole in Government tax laws which imposed a stamp on newspapers.

The rules applied only to newspapers which were produced more than once every 28 days - so he decided to publish one that came out once a month.

Working single-handedly as reporter, news editor and printer, Morris published the first edition, which was four pages long, from a room in Swindon’s High Street.

It was an instant success and the leading article expressed hope that the paper would command a welcome from all and a reproach from none.

The second edition had eight pages and carried 12 columns of advertisements from local businesses.

In all Morris, who remained editor for 37 years, published 18 monthly editions and when the Government relaxed the stamp duty restrictions in 1856 her moved into the weekly market.

The result was The Swindon Advertiser and North Wilts Chronicle - a weekly paper published from ‘the best room’ of a house in Victoria Road.

Swindon was on the threshold of becoming a major railway town and the paper’s title included an engraving of a train making its way through the open countryside.

The circulation and standing of the paper continued to grow along with the town, whose population increased from 2,000 in the mid-1850s to 40,000 in 1900, when it achieved borough status.

An important date in the history of the Swindon Advertiser was in 1861 when the paper was enlarged and a new printing press installed. The slogan ‘Printed by Steam Power’ figured on the mast head when a boiler built by GWR apprentices was put in to run the presses.

Water for the hungry boiler was brought in buckets from a well in Wroughton Road and nine years later Morris was able to produce an eight page paper also costing one penny. It’s circulation was 8,000.

The link between the paper and the railways was further recognised in September 1876 when the publication date was changed from Mondays, the traditional market day, to Saturdays when more GWR workers could read it.

Morris was a well educated Liberal of indomitable will and the paper was proud of its Liberal links. In 1874 the editor contested the Swindon seat as a Liberal, but failed to get elected.

When he died in 1891 Morris’s three sons - William, Samuel and Frank - became the proprietors. Seven years later they published the Evening Swindon Advertiser along with the weekly.

Shortly after it was launched the paper become closely involved with another election battle and at the general election of 1898 Swindon returned a Liberal member to Parliament.

Conservative opposition had earlier appeared in the shape of the North Wilts Herald, which was founded by Joshua Piper from offices in Bath Road.

Some 20 years later, the Piper family also published a separate evening newspaper called the Evening North Wilts Herald, which meant the people of Swindon had two evening and weekly newspapers.

The rivalry between the two papers continued until 1922 when the Evening Herald was amalgamated with the Swindon Evening Advertiser, as it was now called, and Piper’s weekly paper also moved to Victoria Road. That was also the year that the Football Pink was first published.

The North Wilts Herald was merged with the weekly Swindon Advertiser in 1942.

Skip forward to 1995 and the paper took the decision to switch from a broadsheet to tabloid.

And more change was afoot after welcoming in the new century. In 2007 the Adver changed it’s name from the Evening Advertiser to the Swindon Advertiser to reflect the fact that we no longer came out in the evening and could be picked up from newstands first thing in the morning.

In the same year the second edition of the paper was also stopped.

Today our daily circulation, according to the most recent ABC figures (July to December 2012) is 16,266 and our monthly website figures visitors stand at 251,950 - which is up 10.2 per cent from the same period in 2011.

We have 250 delivery agents, aged between 13 and 85-years-old, making sure the Adver gets to homes in Swindon as well as the surrounding area including villages, Castle Eaton, Down Ampney, Ashbury, Bishopstone, Bradenstoke, Bourton, Faringdon, Hannington, Lambourne, Lechlade, Liddington, Little Coxwell, Longcot, Lydiard Millicent, Lyneham, Minety and Ogbourne St George.

The Swindon Advertiser has come a long way in the 159 years since it started with one employee and a hand press.

Today it is published on the most up to date technology available, but its aim is still the same - to serve the people of Swindon.