On a grey Monday in March, the editorial staff at the Salisbury Journal were wondering how they were going to fill the newspaper.

Heavy snowfall over the previous days meant most of the reporting team at the venerable weekly, established in 1729, had not been able to get to work.

“All we had done online was snow coverage so we didn’t have a lot to put in the paper that week,” the head of news, Rebecca Hudson, said. They needed something dramatic to happen.

That evening the news broke that a man found slumped on a bench the day before was a Russian former spy, Sergei Skripal. “Be careful what you wish for,” Hudson said.

Since then the Journal has been at the centre of the story as it emerged that Skripal and his daughter Yulia had been poisoned by the nerve agent novichok.

And it is literally at the heart of the latest poisoning – the Journal’s offices are a few doors down from the hostel where Dawn Sturgess was living before she received a fatal dose of novichok. Paper staff have to pass through one of the cordons to get to work as experts in hazmat suits search for the source of the poisoning.

“We have to ask permission to get through and the police sometimes get a bit funny. One apprentice was asked for his press ID but he hasn’t got one as he’s not qualified. He eventually managed to talk them round,” Hudson said.

It has been an extraordinary time to be a journalist at the paper. “We don’t get a lot of murders or stabbings,” Hudson said. “I’ve never covered a rape or anything like that. It’s not too gritty. We try to keep it newsy but not too serious.

“The word the police use is unprecedented. I suppose that’s probably a good way to describe it for us too. Just unbelievable; a complete change of pace. I don’t think any of us ever thought we’d be working on a story like this at the Salisbury Journal.”

Born and raised in Salisbury, Hudson, 23, is torn between relishing the huge scale of the story and sadness at the impact it is having on the cathedral city.

“It sounds so callous to say, but it is such a good story and it’s been a good experience to cover it. But this is our community as well. I’ve lived here my whole life and it’s not nice to see cordons up and people worried and feeling nervous. It is upsetting. The news of Dawn’s death struck the local reporters especially as quite shocking.”

Asked what the paper understands that the nationals might not, Hudson sums it up as perspective. Rather than focus on the international implications – Hudson acknowledges they do not have the resources to do that – the Journal has concentrated on the local, human impact.

She believes the poisonings may have brought the city closer together. “When I grew up here it felt like Salisbury had a great community spirit. In the last four or five years a lot of that had dissipated. I don’t know why – changing times perhaps. Now there are lots of people pulling together.”

That is not to say, of course, that people are unconcerned. “I think the mood is more anxious than before. It’s not a feeling of panic or great fear. It’s an undertone.”

Practically speaking, it has been a gruelling ride for the Journal. Apart from herself, Hudson has one other trained reporter and one photographer to call on. Luckily, two apprentices were hired a few days before Sturgess and Rowley fell ill. “It was a baptism of fire for them: sink or swim.”

As well as following the ins and outs of the novichok crisis, the Journal has had to keep on top of its bread and butter material – other stories this week have included a row over plans to move the city’s information office from its central location to an underground car park.

At a time when the local and regional press is under significant pressure, the poisonings may serve as a reminder of how vital a community paper can be.

Before the Skripals collapsed, Hudson had been thinking of leaving the Journal at the end of the year to pursue a career in law. “Things have changed a bit. Probably now I’ll still be looking at journalism. I’ve found my flow in it, I think.”