After two years following its sale by Walter J Cole to the owners of the Hornsey Journal, the Times Guardian was back in family ownership when Ronald Coleman and wife Dorothy bought it in 1954.

Moving from Ryde, Isle of Wight, Ronald took over as manager in 1952 but he and Dorothy soon realised the paper might soon be sold.

They put together a deal in 1954 in which they bought the newspaper, its plant and the little factory at the rear of 36 High Street, selling the remaining freehold to Curry's and the stationery business to printer Bernard Smith.

So began the period of development and re-equipping, with Ronald, a former journalist, installing new typesetting and printing machines, memorably moving a huge letterpress rotary press from the Bristol Evening Post.

Out went older gear including a Wharfedale sheeted press powered by a gas engine.

Printing the Times Guardian in one section was only a start, but he was deprived of seeing the project through when in 1963 he suffered a fatal heart attack at a Kent County Council meeting.

Dorothy Coleman carried on with the support of loyal staff, and was joined five years later by son Peter, who trained at the Portsmouth Evening News.

Soon they had bought the neighbouring Faversham News and in 20 years together, upgraded the letterpress plant and then replaced it altogether with photocomposing and web-offset - building a busy contract newspaper printing business in the process.

A new Goss Community press was installed in 1977, the same year Peter married Maggie Guilfoyle, an Australian journalist he had recruited to the Sheerness team.

Ten years later, the couple and their two daughters moved to Australia, selling the newspaper to the Kent Messenger.

From a beach resort north of Sydney, the couple now run a niche publishing business.

Peter, whose mother died in 1997, is still indulging his passion through a newspaper technology magazine for Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

He congratulated the Times Guardian on its landmark anniversary, saying: "I am delighted to represent one family owner who was able to continue and build the Times Guardian for more than three decades and hand it over to another."