“One glad, confident morn, clutching my vitamin extract, I went forth to see the manager of Lloyds Bank…”

So began the life of the South Wales Guardian, born 60 years ago, with its first edition hitting the newsstands on October 21, 1955 – a day later than scheduled.

The man who spent that happy morning in the company of his bank manager was Gwynne Evans.

Gwynne, who along with two partners invested £150 in the fledgling business, would become the Guardian’s founding editor.

The trio dreamt up the idea of a newspaper to oppose the region’s only other title, the Amman Valley Chronicle – “an old boot of a paper,” according to Gwynne and his partners.

Within four years the Chronicle was gone, bought out by the young upstart.

All was not well amongst the Guardian’s founding fathers however.

The three-way partnership became two in 1959 and then in 1961, Gwynne was left to steer the ship alone.

“The triumvirate was never an unqualified success,” he said in 1985.

“Like sugar and salt we only looked alike.”

The split almost marked the end of the Guardian however.

“There was a real danger that the paper might have to cease publication,” he said.

“But fortune favoured us and perseverance was rewarded.”

The Guardian’s fortunes were truly transformed during the 1960s with the bold decision to buy its own printing press – a second-hand Cossar from the then MP for Banbury – for the princely sum of £6,500, plus another £1,000 to have the equipment moved.

The paper continued to thrive throughout the 1960s and 70s and by 1975 was employing four times as many people as the Chronicle at its height.

Then in 1980 an era came to a close.

Gwynne finally decided to sell up. The Guardian, for the first time in its history, was taken over.

The new owners were a firm called Courier Press, based in Royal Leamington Spa, but their reign was short-lived and they sold the paper to publishing giant Emap in 1987.

The purchase of the Guardian, along with the Western Telegraph in Pembrokeshire, always appeared a strange business move for a magazine company and the two titles were sold to United Provincial Newspapers – owners of, amongst many others, the South Wales Argus in Newport in 1992.

Ownership of the Guardian changed three times over the following few years until its purchase by Newsquest, the UK subsidiary of American media giant Gannett in 2000.