A NEW chapter in the history of The Wiltshire Times’ former offices in Trowbridge is being written even as we approach Christmas and the New Year.

Times Square, formerly known as 15 Duke Street, was home to the Wiltshire Times offices for more than 100 years.

Since we moved out in 2019, the offices and printworks have been been redeveloped to create six cottages and three contemporary apartments.

But the developers have paid homage to its former use by incorporating the printing legacy in the names of six of the nine individual properties; namely Times Cottage, Editors Cottage, Lansdown Cottage, Reporters Cottage, Printworks Cottage and Press Cottage.

The office developers have opted for a cottage theme, with traditional style windows, doors and fittings throughout.

At the back of the development is a communal courtyard garden with storage for bikes and bins.

Times editor Pete Gavan said: “While it was sad to leave our office behind, it’s great to see it being reborn as something new. And it’s great to see the hostory of the building reflected in the new names for the homes.”

The weekly newspaper which serves the towns of west Wiltshire, including Trowbridge, was established in 1854 by Benjamin Lansdown, who moved the business into 15 Duke Street around 1876.

Benjamin was born in Trowbridge and was the son of a woollen mill employee but this was not the path he wished to follow and he was apprenticed as a printer alongside Mr John Sweet.

He bought a hard press and second-hand typewriter before starting his own newspaper, then known as the Trowbridge and Wiltshire Advertiser, along with establishing his own stationery shop in Silver Street around 1860.

Duke Street became home to the impressive R. Hoe & Co printing press that allowed printers to use continuous rolls of paper, instead of individual sheets, to speed up the process and countless copies of the newspaper rolled off the press at Duke Street for many years.

The newspaper was based there for more than 100 years and the business remained within the Lansdown family for generations until it was finally sold in the early 1960s.

In 2019, the Wiltshire Times and its sister paper the Gazette & Herald moved to offices on the White Horse Business Park in North Bradley, stating that its Duke Street building was no longer fit for purpose.

These offices later closed in 2020 as the three Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns struck.