The Bucks Free Press has left its home of 49 years and relocated to purpose-built offices in High Wycombe.

The Newsquest paper had been in its last location since 1956 but has now moved into new three-story offices, in Station Road, Loudwater.

The new office complex is home to the Free Press, Midweek, Hillingdon Times, Ealing Times and the South Bucks Star newspapers, as well as more than 100 staff.

Vic Catanach, publisher of the paper group, said the move on Monday (May 23) will be good for staff morale.

He said: "The old site had got to the stage where without massive investment we would've struggled to stay there."

The building had a projected life span of 50 years and time was almost up. Staff experienced poor heating control, blocked drains and a leaking roof over the last few years and are in positive mood about the move.

Reporter Julian Howson has been with the company for four months. He said: "It shows we are moving forward and we are modernising. I think it will give everyone a lift."

But the relocation has added poignancy for long-serving Newspaper Sales manager Dennis Oliver, who has been with the Bucks Free Press for 46 years. He said: "It is almost as if I have returned home. From my desk I can see the house (now part of the dental surgery) in which my grandparents brought up their nine children. At one time, my mother would have lived in a house within the bounds of our car park."

The move will be the fourth in the paper's 149 year history.

William Butler, a chemist, bookseller, stationer and publisher, set up The South Bucks Free Press and the Weekly General Advertiser in December 1856, in Church Street, High Wycombe.

The railway had recently joined High Wycombe to the Maidenhead branch line, defining a new district which Butler believed needed a new paper.

The first major move happened under Butler's son Thomas, who had succeeded his father as editor, when the paper went to Castle Street, where the Castle Street office block now stands.

The old eight-acre site has been sold to Beaconsfield-based property development company Michael Shanly.

The Free Press building will make way for new homes owned by Wycombe District Council.