Fifty years ago this week heralded the dawn of a new area in the way many Five Valleys folk caught up with the weekly news.

On May 3, 1957 the Stroud News and Journal was born following the amalgamation of two weeklies - the Stroud Journal and the Stroud News and Gloucester County Advertiser. James Davis reports on the paper's first half-century.

It wasn't a cat that got stuck up a tree that made headlines 50 years ago - but it wasn't far off.

The front page of the last ever Stroud Journal carried a quirky story headed Eight lives left' in which firemen rescued a frightened moggy that had taken cover from a passing train by diving into a factory chimney.

While both papers set for the merge were highly regarded at the time, the inclusion of this archetypal lighter local newspaper tale sent a timely reminder to readers that the new publication would endeavour not to take itself too seriously.

This message was in fact trumpeted in the last ever Stroud Journal as part of a tone-setting column by popular contributor, Jonathan'.

He wrote: "If we don't like something we shall say so. If we feel we must take a stand on an issue, we shall do. If we feel we must be critical, critical we shall be.

"However, it is not our desire to take life too seriously. Even in the age of the H-bomb there is room for the good joke-and we shall aim to get the brighter and lighter side of life into our columns.

"Sport will have a good show and also pictures. Our aim will be to strike a balance between many interests."

With its intentions laid out, the first SNJ was published the following week on Friday, May 3 .

While I must confess that some miscreant has stolen the front cover from the archive copy, the first SNJ ran with a strong hard news story - the closing day of one of the most-talked about fraud cases in the district's history.

And just as we did this week in 2007, the inaugural SNJ looked forward to local elections.

"It can be assumed that apathy, as usual, will largely rule the day," was the verdict according to the page three editorial round-up, Topics of the Week'.

Elsewhere in the paper, page four was dominated by the £5 or less classified advertisements which were peppered with bargains including a banjo, a kitchen table and some more unusual offerings including the following listing: "hen and 11 chicks, 10 days old, good laying strain. £2."

At Stroud's cinema, the Gaumont, John Gielgud was apparently 'at his best as the dominating father' in the Barretts of Wimpole Street.

And in sport, committee members at the district's top football side Stonehouse, which played in the Western League Division II, were appealing for the community to help keep the club afloat.

After the merger the paper began regularly selling 15,000 copies, gradually rising from a 10-page to a 16-page broadsheet.

Peter Bailey who along with brother Michael made up the fourth generation of Baileys who owned and ran the paper, reflects on the transition.

He said economic factors did not favour the running of two papers so they merged.

"We doubled our office staff as we had two or three reporters on the Stroud News and two or three on the Journal and advertisers got a larger circulation," said Mr Bailey, who eventually sold the company in 1998.

"The SNJ covered the Five Valleys and we were able to be more thorough than our rivals. It was certainly a very popular paper."

In its early days, the SNJ was a great success largely due to the dedication of Jack Sollars, the news editor, and Dennis Mason, then sports editor and later editor.

The paper's next major change came in June 1986 when the SNJ went tabloid and in a stroke enabled the paper to print up to 48 pages.

Soon after Mr Mason retired as editor in 1990 colour gradually began to fill the pages.

A year after joining the paper in 1995 as senior reporter, Skip Walker was promoted to editor - a post she made her own until 2005.

"The turn of the millennium was, I believe, also a turning point for Stroud and the Five Valleys and I feel the SNJ made a contribution to its upturn in fortunes and vice versa," she said.

"It is lovely to see both the community and the paper thriving in 2007."

Current editor Sue Smith said: "This merger took place in the year I was born so we are both celebrating half a century this year although I am afraid only one of us is still looking as fresh as a daisy.

"The SNJ still tries to keep a balance between a variety of interests, serving as it does the eclectic and interesting mix of people who make up the Five Valleys.

"We still try not to take ourselves too seriously but when a mighty voice is required as it was recently when the hospital was under threat then we have no hesitation in taking a stand.

"I am proud to edit a paper that serves such a passionate community and I hope it continues to do so for at least another 50 years."